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AIDS Rights of the individual have to give way when health at stake America has long been at war with itself over the question of individual rights. Should the individual's right to privacy risk the safety of society as a whole? In certain cases, the answer is no. t i:.. j i c j ' inuiviuuai ireeaom is a iragne commodity that is always at risk, even in America. In general, the government's desire to butt into the individual's business should be curbed. The fad of drug testing is an unnecessary inconvenience for most workers, and is an example of ineffectual government intrusion. Public notification of those infected with the AIDS virus is a similar situation, with very important exceptions. The average person infected with AIDS has every right to privacy. No one should become a pariah for getting a disease. However, given the nature of the health profession, doctors and nurses that get infected should be forced to go public with the disease, or resign from their job. The tragedy suffered by those who have gotten the disease from a doctor or nurse should not be repeated. This is not a hysterical pronouncement against those with AIDS, but an obvious preventative measure for people who routinely are exposed to the bodily fluids of others. AIDS patients should not be isolated in "leper" colonies. Those infected should not have their names brandished in the headlines. But when a person puts others at risk to a deadly disease through careless misconduct, they should be punished. For example, infected people that knowingly have sex with others should be convicted for assault and battery at least. One right the individual is not granted in the Constitution is the right to risk peoples' lives. r j I r BGAiyiLCOTTK News: 777-7726 Advertising: 777-4249 ; ... A c David Bowden c Editor in Chief t ? i Tige Watts Aaron Sheinin a News Editor Carolina Life Editor Rich Taylor Daniel Barabas s Sports Editor Graphics Editor r F TW T? Tn fl * ^V^.T JUL1L DUULMILLUH Photo Editor v Jennifer Jablonski c Copy Desk Chief n 11 Ed bonza Erik Collins [, Director of Student Media Faculty Adviser h Laura S.Day Ray Burgos ij Production Manager Assistant Production Manager a Renee Gibson Carolyn Griffin ? Advertising Manager Business Manager v . Letters Policy: The Gamecock wifl try to print a# letters received. Letters should be. at jj maximum, 250 to 300 words long. The writer must include full name, professional title if a USC employee or South Carolina resident, or year and major if a student. An address and phone number are required with aH letters sent. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit letters for style, possible Bbei or in case of space limitations. The newspaper will p not withhold names under any circumstance. e v..?, Animal resear I would like to respond to the letter from Ms. Goldman for the "Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine" in which she presents an opposing view as to the necessity for animal research. She would lead the reader to believe that most of the current discoveries in medicine are being made without the use of or need for animal research. I believe there is little evidence to support this viewpoint. Ms. Goldman says that animals are suffering tremendously and in very large numbers in labs across the country. A bit later she states that the vast majority of medical research does not involve animals at all. Obviously, she cannot have it both ways. Either animals are heavily used or they are not. I take issue with the statement that animals are "suffering" in laboratories; such would not meet the Federal, local or professional guidelines for the use of animals in research. I addressed this issue in my first letter. It is also important to note that, under USD A regulations, animals used in research must be kept in clean large cages under carefully controlled environmental conditions. Space for exercise must be available along with other stringent requirements. I would argue again that if it is justified to use animals for any purpose, medical research is certainly one of the most justifiable areas. Ms. Goldman states that many alternatives to animal use are available and animal testing is dangerous business. Even thnncrh T nnint^H nut that licensed prescription drugs in the U.S. must i ' ; i'FTTFRS iTO T] * * * i i* -*? *. M . 4 ^k^k. Kw/ A \-/ A. J iiii\>i i^vri'.v.*.*ivri*iYi'i'('ii'i11111111111;i'; ; Vnv. .mm,rmi.nuni i ii. ii; mm iniii .... S.C. College STJ,= 1# . , from working nOl elltlSt professor, th partially rest r? editor* many of thesi I read with interest your op-ed wWp all cm )iece on the Carolinian Creed in he June 5 Gamecock with particu- ^ot onjy ( ar attention to your comments on outstanding 1 South Carolina Honors College university, 1 _ many stude: The Honors College does not otherwise cc daim to offer a "better" education ma of wh( han that available to die rest of contributions JSC s undergraduates, but to offer versity As t different type of education. Hon- glance at th >rs courses stress analytical think- ^ l ng and strong oral and writing ^ , . kills. Most of the courses include J! esearch papers and independent s*x ^ crs ' irojects, and all require a high ^Honors C< svel of class preparation and hard When you vork students take One of the most positive aspects courses in >f the Honors College is its open- courses, you c iess. You are quite right to assert fIve e , tiat entering Freshmen are care- onors c asse? ully screened to ensure that they ,^s, aJmfm! ave the academic preparation to *hich andle the level of work required -fve,a ?? C. 1 SCC. However, you may not be ^ldeals * s ware that any USC student can nmg counter 1 nter the Honors College upon de- 0 ina 7? lonstrating the ability to do the f?one of fork. We actively seek students A fith a strong level of performance f e 0 , colleg. ?n]l, 3.5 ? MB). marchess of their SAT scores. ^uc tt . , Carolina stude Honors students have no monooly on USC's "best" teachers; evry professor who teaches an honrs course also teaches plenty of Master, Sot ^SlSSl s ch plays big i FRANCIS ABEL Guest Columnist be tested on animals, she gives as example drugs that have been tested and not found to b dangerous, but later turned out to have undesii able side effects in humans. In fact, animal tesi ing is only one phase of licensure of a drug, bi an important phase. In the case of thalidomide it was not licensed in this country becaus adequate teratogenic studies (ability to caus birth defects) had not yet been done in pregnan animals. Our FDA rightly withheld approval ii the U.S. Ms. Goldman fails to note that if a new druj is developed with an immediate clinical applica tion in the treatment of individuals with life threatening diseases, would you arbitrarily giv< it to a human population without testing on an> animal species? Would anyone like to volunteei to be the initial testing group? If you were pregnant, would you volunteer tc receive a drug that had received only test-tube testing? Ms. Goldman misses the entire issue ol the necessity to do such tests in both animals and humans before an agent can be used therapeutically. In some cases, test-tube testing can be done, but only as a screening device, which does not take care of looking for side effects ol the drug, such as teratogenesis. f-IF FHTTrvp L JULwV . JL: JL A. .; ?iiiii? ?ii.iiiv.vi "mi n r : ' l:i .. jrsity courses. Rather T T O ting other students Ui^V^ v^I*C I with an outstanding _ e Honors College is 113. S DUTD ^onsible for keeping ^ r s fine faculty at USC, idents have access to To the editor Professor Jerome J loes SCC help retain of ,tbe Carolinii acuity for the entire 'ast s Ietters tt but it also recruits b[ou8ht out, some'me nts who might not about lts role ^un ime to USC - and bis argume,.m ^ ^ om make significant document (mtegnty. d to the life of this uni- ?ny' rcsPeCt? a matter of fact, a buf,h of ghttenng gen le masthead of the fal110 commumcate re sue containing your 1S sPeciousi ^ out of ** When applied to ev, is ted are students m vjorj words woul ^eSe- specific meaning, esp realize that honors community uphold ' over Together they descril general university w^at js considered d :an infer what a posi- vjor. 0fteilj such ideal: ly can have on non- s-s for nnr |aws_ Thev !* _ , . defined, and subject to xsr of the committee but not > Carolinian Creed, I adequate in everyd rful commitment to making xesses. Far from nin0 those ideals, South Professor Jewler's a ege and its students nores ^ ^r( 1 examples of its em- js not same as mea] ere is nothing elitist limits, or meaningless nors College, which words allow freedom 1 I the enhancement of limits. On the margin* al experience for all finitions of these won ;nts* ments, and ultimately i will arise. William A. Mould ith Carolina College We will have to wail TT vuuvjuuj | /U11V j 1771 i. " JKE.winbss is off,... f| T IT^ A GLAIAOFO05 UF?. p > WOW COME MO OM ? i/MANTS ft ? OFT IMT79 TU\C ijkic ^ Of WORKMmoRz'P - *" ? ?i nedical role 1 Ms. Goldman represents the Physicians Com mittee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM). Less than 0.5 percent of all doctors are estimated to be members. On June 27, 1990, the American Medical Association censured the PCRM, stating: "Whereas, the AMA strongly supports the re,s sponsible use of animals in biomedical research e which is consistent with and necessary to the r_ responsible practice of medicine; and" L_ "Whereas, a recent survey of practicing physlt icians in the United States conducted by the AMA reveals that 99 percent agree that animal g experimentation has contributed to medical e progress, that 97 percent support the use of anilt mals for basic research, that 96 percent support a the use of animals for drug testing and that 93 percent support the use of animals for medical ? education "Whereas, the name of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine implies that those s who disagree with its views are not in favor of responsible medicine; therefore be it" f "RESOLVED, that the American Medical Association register strong objections to the ) PCRM for implying that physicians who support the use of animals in biomedical research J are irresponsible, for misrepresenting the critical t role animals play in research and teaching, and for obscuring the overwhelming support for such research which exists among practicing physicians in the U.S." Dr. Francis Abel is professor and chairman of the USC School of Medicine. ' x-. ' . : . . . : ' .. -. .: ..... .v. .. v i of conflict to see where the freeea dom ends and those margins begin. Then we will discover if Professor ose Jewler's unique litmus test for an ethics code ? whether it "persuades" as well as an advertisement ? has any place in our esS^Cn tablishing ethical codes, or whether in Creed in ^stead a community can actually ) the editor agree Up0n, for example, what resting 1 eas "dignity" means. In the meantime, iversity. But ^ese words connote broad, but vo in this 0^ commonly accepted, ideals, igmty, prop) "are just a Finally, Professor Jewler's aseralities that sertion that these words are al meaning" "merely symbols" is of course true; all words are symbols. But the symbol stands for some thing sryday beha- 0r idea to which a community asd have quite sents. The symbols he mentions ecially in a stand for ideals this community ling them, has asked its members to recognize be much of ultimately, sustain, ecent beha5 are the ba- How much better to establish a are broadly starting point for an ethical cornpersonal in- munity than to resign ourselves to 'ague or in- the conclusion that because such ay choice- ideals are not "things" that can "persuade," we should refuse to uphold them as unworthy of our irgument ig- attention. Professor Jewler, in ad>ad meaning hering to advertising's moral ninff without codes would rather u/e surrender ness. These to nihilism. Unlike what the prowithin those fessor says, the Creed is not meant s of the de- as a solution, but as a means to is disagree- one. those limits, Pete Mackey t for the test English graduate student