Theologian urges situational approach to euthanasia
By PAULA JOLLY
Kansan Staff Reporter
In the time of Hippocrates, the father of medicine, there was a yearly feast known as the death banquet. People who were old and tired of living could last the meal and then take a potion to end their lives.
Although this custom might seem to be just a shadow from the past, it touches upon a controversial question in medicine today—the question of whether euthanasia, the act or method of causing death painlessly to end suffering, is ethically unintifiable.
Joseph Fletcher, 74, an authority on medical morality and the first Dotor Hixon Visiting Lecturer at the KU Medical Center, spoke there last week on euthanasia. Fletcher is a professor of the Ephrusian nephrology which is associated with the Epiphany Hospital he has written several books on morality and situation ethics.
MOST OF THE ISSUES critically and consciously discussed today are caused by mankind's innovations and advances, Fletcher said. For example, he said, modern resuscitative
medicine and its technological development of artificial life-support systems have brought physicians to a point in the care of patients, especially those with terminal illnesses, at which the doctors often find themselves crossing the line by preserving live and simply prolonging dying.
"So now," Fletcher said, "for the first time in the
world we are having to deal with the
question of when should we leave
If people can exercise the responsibility of birth control, Fletcher then, say why not the responsibility of death exercise? And if people may ethically justify the exercise of human controls on dying, he said, then should the controls be direct or indirect?
Indirect or passive euthanasia, Fletcher said, would be a deliberate act of omission with death as the goal, while direct or active euthanasia would be a deliberate act of commission. He said a deliberate act of omission was morally the same as a deliberate act of commission, when the goal of both was death.
FLETCHER SAID HE thought any form of
He posed eight levels of initiative in the practice of euthanasia. The first level, he said, is the absolute no to euthanasia in which every possible method is used to keep the patient alive.
euthanasia could be ethically justifiable, depending on the situation.
The second level proposed by Fletcher is the qualified no, in which extraordinary means aren't used to keep a patient alive, especially in terminal illness where death has been medically determined
Fletcher said this level was the same as the position on euthanasia expressed by Pope Pius XII in a 1837 address to a medical congress in Rome. According to Fletcher, the main problem with this level is the difficulty of agreeing on what constitutes "extraordinary means."
Fletcher said the next three levels would be considered passive or indirect euthanasia. The first level of indirect euthanasia occurs when a physician or patient declines to start treatment. An example, for example, is the diagnosis of irreversible cancer throughout his body who developed pneumonia. The physician or the patient
may decline to start treatment for pneumonia, thus hastening death, Fletcher said.
THE SECOND LEVEL OF indirect euthanasia occurs when the physician stops treatment for a disease with the patient's consent. The third level happens when treatment is stopped without the patient. Fletcher said, including cases in which the patient is unable to make the decision that he is unable to make the decision himself.
Fletcher's last three levels of initiative are classified as direct or active euthanasia. The first direct euthanasia level occurs when a physician helps a patient end his own life, possibly by providing the patient with sufficient morphine for an overdose.
The next level is when the physician ends the patient's life with the patient's consent. Fletcher said that famous Scottish physician had confessed that he had gone to a dying patient's cottage for tea and then dropped a death-causing drug into the patient's cup with the patient's consent.
THE LAST LEVEL OF INITIATIVE, and in
Fletcher's own words the far, way-out stage on this path, occurs when the physician ends a patient's life without the patient's consent. This could possibly occur when a patient has no mental function but physically is still alive. If there are no friends or next of kin to make the decision, Fletcher said, then the physician might end the life on his own initiative if he feels the act is ethically justified.
Reactions to euthanasia at any level are varied, Fletcher said. Last summer the Canadian Medical Association endorsed indirect euthanasia—letting the patient go—while on the other hand an eminent Danish physician was denounced because he said he chose to stop fighting to keep some patients alive.
Diverse opinions on euthanasia were expressed by physicians practicing at the Med Center and in Lawrence. Ron Stephens, assistant professor of medicine in the division of clinical oncology at the Med Center, said he knew death could be a friend to someone specially for some of the cancer patients he had seen.
See EUTHANASIA page 3
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Vol. 85-No.119 Friday, April 4, 1975
The University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
Seals and Crofts
By Staff Photographer GEORGE MILLENER III
Recording artists Dash Crofts and Jin Seals wait for their cue to proceed onstage before they Thursday night SUA sponsored
concert at Allen Field House. The concert drew about 6,000 fans.
See review page 5.
KU budget hike OK'd
By YAEL ABOUHALKAH and RICHARD PAXSON Kansan Staff Reporters
Applications for UDK posts
Similar increases were granted to the five other state colleges and universities. The increases are part of a $29.8 million appropriation to the Board of Regents, including $8.6 million for the salary increase and $2.9 million for the increase in other
Applications for the positions of editor and business manager for the Kanasan for the summer session and fall semester. Apply by noon April 11 in 105 Flint Hall
TOPEKA - A 10 per cent increase in faculty salaries and a 15 per cent increase in other operating expenses at the University of Kansas. This will be by the Kansas House of Representatives.
Application forms are available in 106 Flint; the Student Senate office, 105B Kansas Union; the office of the dean of men, 228 Strong Hall; and the office of the dean of women, 222 Strong.
The Kansas Board will interview candidates and select editors and business managers on April 16.
Baha'i inspires Seals, Crofts music
Crofts said they were first introduced to the religion by his mother-in-law, Marcia Day. After they adopted the Baha'i Faith, they began to play a different type of music.
Although the music of recording artists Jim Seals and Dash Crofts appears to have no overtone of evangelism, religious faith is an inseparable part of their lives.
By JAIN PENNER Kansan Staff Reporter
Seals and Crofts, who appeared in concert in Allen Field House Thursday night, said in an interview that they were members of the Baha'i Faith.
"We knew that this writing didn't emanate from us," said Seals. "Call it what you will, but I guess we got tuned in to a higher force and higher awareness."
THEIR MUSIC AND LYRICS ARE based on unity, they said, a basic principle of the Bahu'i Faith. They said they thought music was a world language that had the power to break down the barriers raised by racial, national and religious bigotry.
"we found the truth and our vehicle for expressing it was our music," said Crofts.
Seals and Crofts said they wanted to move their audience to spiritual heights, but
didn't want to engage in onstage proselizing.
Crofts said they often met with Baha's groups while on tour. A member of their staff corresponds regularly with Baha's in different areas, be said.
After most of their concerts, Seals and Crofts invite people to come up and talk to them.
The personalities of Seals and Crofts emerged during the informal interview. Crofts, the flamboyant of the two, sat with his legs crossed. Dressed in a black suit, he wore a long chain of leather clippers and sequins, he talked and gestured freely with no hint of self-consciousness.
Senate hears more fund requests
"We are especially pleased that they saw fit to fund to 10 per cent faculty pay raises," Chancellor Archie R. Dykes said Thursday, the top priority in our budget requests. The department's operating expenses was critically needed to combat the effects of surinating inflation."
DYNES SAID HE TOUGHT the bill
had little trouble passing in the
street.
operating expenses. The appropriations bill now goes to the Senate for final approval.
Keith Nitcher, vice chancellor for business affairs, said one of the biggest disappointments of the budget process had been the deletion by the House Ways and Means Committee of a special allocation of $1.5 billion to placement of scientific teaching equipment.
Four of the 12 organizations heard Thursday were requesting funding for the first time. Two of these, the Federation of Chicano and Native American Student Social Workers and the Association of Minority Pre-Health Students, are newly formed organizations. A third, Alpha Rho Gamma, an educational and support organization, is working with silversmithing, is being revived after several years of inactivity.
THE STUDENT CHAPTER of the American Society of Civil Engineers is applying for funding for the first time this year because its membership does not insufficient to pay for the organization's activities, according to Bruce McEnroe, president.
The bill was passed with few changes from the budget recommendations made by Gov. Robert F. Bennett in January. It allocates $29,702,482 for salaries and wages and $5,340,613 for other operating expenses at the University.
See SEALS page 8
The Chicano Law Students and the Black American Law Students said they would use the funds to increase the number of black and Chicano law students at the University. They said they would work in cooperation with each other and with Women In Law.
SEALS SEEMED CONTENT to let CROTS do most of the talking. He sat quietly beside his partner. Wearing blue jeans and holding a tobacco pipe in one hand and a styrofoam
"There is little chance that the University will be able to get those funds from the government," she said.
Also included in the bill is a special account of $143,899 for library accruals at KU.
Three student law organizations and three work organizations have applied for funding.
See FUND page 3
Funds in the amount of $440,000 are also provided in the bill for the replacement of 85% of the roof.
"That means we'll have more book money for next fiscal year," John Glinka, acting dean of libraries, said. "I'm very pleased with the action."
THE AMOUNT OF STATE support for women's intercollegiate athletics at KU will be increased $30,092 under the bill. This increase is in addition to the women's program to $88,667 for fiscal 1976.
Other funding for KU programs and projects includes:
"We weave we've reached a verbal agreement with a candidate," Shankel said, "but we're waiting for an agreement in writing from him."
-$1,523,774 for the Kansas Geological Survey:
The Student Senate Academic Affairs Committee met for over four hours Thursday, hearing budget requests from 12 organizations.
Libraries dean appointed soon
The new dean will replace David Heron, who resigned July 1, 1974, to accept a position as director of libraries at the University of California at Santa Cruz.
-$201,350 for research on tertiary oil recovery.
Kansan Staff Reporter
-$120,790 in added funding for the ARES
BILL BLESSING, committee chairman, told the groups that Senate rules and organization whose membership policies discriminated on the basis of race or sex. He also reminded them that a notice to that group should be made in public matter paid for with Senate funds.
The organizations appearing before the committee were asked to explain their specific budget requests. Related groups, such as the Chicano Law Students, Black American Law Students and Women in the community, pay costs by cooperating with one another.
A candidate has been selected and approved for the dean of libraries at the University of Kansas and should be an associate professor or executive, type, chancellor, said Thursday.
In addition to hearing from organizations requesting funding, the committee also heard from Ellen Ryanne, president of the Graduate School Council. Reynolds said he would guarantee $2,309 as a line item, it still must present its budget before the committee.
The committee, which has only $973 to allocate, has now heard from 17 groups requesting a total of $29,981. It still must hear from three other groups requesting a total of $30,648.
By JIM BATES
John Glinka is currently acting dean of libraries.
The council also elected a presiding officer and an assistant presiding officer of the court.
project, a computerized survey of the state's natural resources; and
STATE REP. WILLIAM K. MARSHALL,
D-Topkea, with the $90,000, combined with a
$75,000 allocation for remodeling of
president's residence at Kansas State
University, could finance a home maintenance program he had proposed.
six faculty members were elected to senate at an organizational meeting of the board.
The only part of the University's budget challenged during the floor debate was a $9,000 item for the replacement of the air-conditioning system in the cocooner's residence.
-$125,000 for roof repairs to Robinson
Gymnasium and Strong Hall.
SenEx members elected are:
See BUDGET page 3
Biepiol, Gold and Zuther were reelected to SenEx.Zuther was chosen to replace James Seaver, professor of history and John H. Dodd, professor of history and senEx of the new SenEx members.
The new SenEx and council members will begin their duties May 20.
Arthur Brewpool, professor of electrical engineering; Robert Casad, professor of law; Joel Gold, professor of English; Frances Horowitz, professor of human sciences; Robert Knapper, associate professor of business; and Gerhard Zuther, professor of English.
The presiding officer of the new council is Charles Kiesler, professor of psychology. Jon Josserand, Johnson junior, is the new assistant presiding officer.
Council elects new members to SenEx jobs
Congressional appearance
Martha Keys, second district congressman, manages a tired smile for Wendy Martin, Leeward senior, who introduced her to about 50 persons in Woodruff Auditorium Thursday night. Keys was speaking at the Annual Spring Symposium of the KU
Commission on the Status of Women. Checking her watch at right, Ms. Penner, Mr. sen., and president of commissions, is story paper.