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Wednesday, July 27, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Ruling endangers biotech industry
An appeals court in California ruled last week that tissues and cells taken from a person's body remained the property of that person. The ruling extended to the individual any profits gained from commercial use of the tissues or cells.
That was a mistake.
Much of biomedical research depends on the study of samples of discarded human tissue or blood. The tissues or blood cells are used to create cell lines, colonies of disembodied cells that will grow in laboratory dishes when given the appropriate nutrients. These samples are essential because all diseases can be traced to individual cells.
And yet, if the thousands of people who donate their samples each year claim some sort of remuneration for their "services," the biotechnology business soon will be out of business.
The case began with a 1984 lawsuit filed against the University of California Board of Regents by John Moore, a 43-year-old soda salesman from Seattle. Moore's suit claimed that researchers at UCLA took cells from Moore's cancerous spleen and, without notifying him, developed a series of products that could produce profits if proven useful.
Researchers discovered that Moore's blood had properties that helped stimulate protection against leukemia. Moore's doctors patented a cell line developed from their patient's blood. Dr. David Golde, the UCLA cancer specialist who treated Moore, then sold rights to the patent to a Boston-based biotechnology company in a deal that Moore's lawyers claim was worth $3 million. If the company gains predicted results, the information gleamed from Moore's cells will be used to create a therapy for cancer.
That's exactly the point. Cell lines usually are cultured in bottles; and although those first cells might be a patient's, the descendants of those cells, the ones used in the actual research, have often been modified and thus are not the property of the donor.
George Rathman, president of Amgen, Inc., a Los Angeles-based biotechnology company, said, "In some cases, you don't take anything more than information from someone's cell. You are not using any part of that guy's body other than to analyze it and get data."
Indeed, more and more "conscientiously" donors "consciently" 'donating their tissue and blood would mean increasing costs and headaches for researchers who should not have to put with such unfounded claims and unbidden burdens.
Lawyers for UCLA have said they would appeal the decision to the California Supreme Court. The state's high court should reverse the appeals court's ruling because if it doesn't, the burgeoning biotech industry will be under attack from all sides and virtually unable to continue this all-important research.
David White, managing editor
Letter to the editor
to be let go
as the laboratory animals. I am lucky in that I can leave at any moment of my choosing. As I walk into out of the heat of the day, I think about my fellow mammals remaining in that building. They are not relaxing, however, because they are needed in experiments. They are put to the test time-after-blended-together time to answer one question: Will they live another day?
This is the final semester I will be attending the University before graduating. Although I am pleased about moving on, I am ashamed for what I couldn't change.
You see, every day. I have logic class in Malott Hall. Every day. I'm housed within the same walls
Pattee Borst, Overland Park senior
Are these the best places to live?
By Grace Hobson Staff Columnet
OK, I know it's not a pleasant thought, but one of these days, we all are going to graduate. And, we hope, get a job. And probably move away.
Staff Columnist
Move away? Leave the comfortable nest we've built here in Lawrence? Surely you iest!
But yes, it is a fact of life. There will come a time when we must move on.
But have no worry, the August issue of Money magazine has made the job of finding a new home easier for us. The magazine annually publishes a lot of the 300 best places to live in the United States.
This year, Danbury, Conn., topped the list. Danbury, Connecticut? I know, I've never heard of it either. Its low crime rate, slightly above average schools and proximity to New York are what made this town of 60,470 the winner.
That doesn't take into account, however, the high cost of living, which pays for the cultural benefits of living near New York City. And furthermore, its residents aren't even so sure about the high rating. "I don't know why," one citizen said. "It's boring."
She said they had to go to New York to do anything.
First of all, I kind of wonder about the validity of a survey that mentions two of anything from New Jersey. Naming one city would have been bad enough.
I'm not so sure I agree with some of the other choices the magazine picked, either. Among the top 10 areas in the country were San Francisco, Los Angeles-Long Beach, California's Orange County and two central New Jersey counties, Bergen and Passaic.
want to live in a place named Yuba?
And three of the main areas in California? I admit I've never been to California, but I also admit I never want to go. either. San Francisco does sound beautiful with its hills and seaside views, but it has its share of problems, too, which I won't bother mentioning.
I also wouldn't care to subject myself to the pollution, and not just industrial, of Los Angeles.
Those areas are better than the magazine's bottom 10, at least. Atlantic City was at the bottom. Yuba City, Calif., made the list, too. Who would
Des Moines also was named, though, and I never thought Des Moines would be such a bad place to live. Or Rockford, III, for that matter. OK, those places do sound a little boring.
Battle Creek, Mich., was listed. I guess all the cereal industry there didn't float.
The Midwest didn't fare too poorly, with two cities leaping almost to the top of the list. Cleveland rose from 83rd last year to 22nd. And Cincinnati jumped from 104th to 31st. But Cleveland? The 22nd best place to live in the United States? Again. I have to wonder.
I won't comment on Cincinnati because of my lack of anything to say about it.
In addition to the cities that skyrocketed in the survey, some felt great distances, usually because of economic difficulties. Houma-Thibodaux, La., fell from 11th last year to 128th, and Wheeling, W.Va., was down to 45th from 3rd. But what were these cities doing so high in the first place? Houma who? And anywhere in West Virginia can't be that great.
Despite its decline in popularity with the Money magazine pollsters, Wheeling came out looking better than the four Kansas cities that made the list. Wichita ranked 193rd, up from last year's 269th rating. Remember, that's 269th out of 300. Kansas City, Kan., didn't do any better, coming in at 196th, but at least it improved, from 229th last year.
Kansas City, Mo., beat them both with its 157th rating, which was a jumpo from 26th last year.
Alas, our beloved Lawrence came in at 26th5improving from last year's 281st. And Topeka was rated 267th, which was down by 10 places from last year.
Now tell me, what do any of the cities on the list have that Lawrence doesn't? Or the Kansas City area, or Topeka for that matter? Sure, the East, being the oldest part of our country, is rich in culture and history. And the ocean and mountains add scenic beauty to the area. And sure, San Francisco has trolley cars, art and Diane Feinstein. And I guess Los Angeles would never allow a dull moment.
But hey, Kansas isn't that bad. We have hills. I always hate it when people who have never been here joke about the flatness of Kansas. I'd like to walk around campus with them on a summer afternoon. Then we'd see how hard they would be
laughing.) Mountains aren't the only eye-pleasing
scenery, anwave. I love the open beauty of Kansas.
We have art. I experienced the rare impressionists' exhibit, the Courtlaid Collection, in Kansas City, Mo. And Kansas City, Mo., even has trolley cars now. So there. San Francisco.
Closer to home, Lawrence has every element that makes a city truly livable. The influence of the University provides not only art and culture, but also an atmosphere of continual learning and liberal discussions of ideas. Lawrence also has a deep sense of its role in Kansas history, which is preserved in its old buildings and historic neighborhoods.
Furthermore, Lawrence sidestep many of the disadvantages that are often a result of being a college town, such as a high crime rate. A healthy industry and business community make it much easier to keep students managing to keep the university atmosphere. The wide cross-section of people adds to its ambiance.
Lawrence's economy is strong, its schools are decidedly above average, and its downtown is one of few that is still thriving. The Kansas City area and Topeka are close enough to provide shopping, culture, and commerce.
And let us not forget Joe's Bakery.
Taking a walk up and down the hills, especially at dusk, brings together many of Lawrence's qualities, and reinforces all its genuinely satisfying characteristics.
When I think of graduating, I move of moving away to a new and foreign land, maybe North America.
Although leaving Lawrence will be hard, the thought excites me. I've made Lawrence my home here after living a nomadic existence with my military family.
From the looks of it, the decision of where to live will be challenging. But when it comes right down to it, not many cities can compete with the livability of Lawrence.
At least we have the guidance of Money's list. If we're lucky, we'll find a job someone rated in the top of the survey. Like Wheeling, W.Va. Or New Jersey.
Grace Holson is a Lawrence senior majoring in English and journalism.
On the other hand, I think I'll stay in Lawrence
Other voices
University needs own press to print professors' work
For years, the administration has been pressuring faculty members to become better researchers by publishing materials that add not only credentials to the teaching faculty but also prestige to the university as a leader.
Auburn, however, lacks a vital part of this publishing process: a press.
many other schools, have presses to meet their faculty's printing demands . . . not to mention Auburn's.
It is baffling to the Plainsman that the administration pushes so hard for the faculty to publish to maintain the high standards of the university when these materials must be sent to rival schools to be printed.
The University of Alabama, the University of North Carolina and the University of Georgia, like
The Plainsman finds it disturbing that our faculty must send their printing needs to these other schools. It is, in a word, embarrassing.
Though we can certainly under
stand the administration's budgetary restrictions, the Plainsman thinks that our priority should be providing the faculty with a press. It would localize the efforts of faculty research and would benefit the university more so than the current situation.
Program offers teachers basic certification courses free
The Plainsman Auburn, Ala.
The College of Education has a recipe for more success in gaining Georgia secondary teachers:
One bachelor's degree in science or math. Add three courses for teacher certification. Yield —
refund of the course tuition.
ship while being paid.
Yes, any student with a bachelor's in science or math can take basic certification courses for free, in addition to serving a college-supervised teaching intern-
However, the program needs some restriction on the students. A contract requiring them to teach in Georgia for a specified period of time after being certified ensures
that the university isn't giving this valuable money to someone who will go to another state.
The Red and Black Athens, Ga.
At the conventions, much of the news made isn't news at all
Managing Editor
By David White
In an effort to steal attention from Michael Dukakis and Jesse Jackson during last week's Democratic National Convention, Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry put a box on his head. He was looking for publicity and he found it.
Just minutes after he donned the box, he was surrounded by photographers looking for features to offset the expected bland nature and words of the convention. But Jesse Jackson's speech stirred the souls and minds of many listeners,
All the same, these photographers were looking for features, and they thought they had found a dandy with this idiot wearing a box on his head. But was that a feature?
and Dukakis' speech was not as boring or long-winded as predicted (or as Bill Clinton's).
"I enlisted Bob Morris and Erik Lacitis, who are also newspaper columnists and, therefore, like myself, do not have even a tiny shred of human dignity." Barry said. He wrote in his column the next day that it took only seven seconds for the first photographer to take a picture of the three
The main message of the convention was unity, granted. All threats of a brokered convention were set aside on the first day when Dukakis and Jackson declared a sort of peace. Some people protested outside the Omi, but none of the demonstrations were silent. And when Jackson spoke, he was wildly by thousands of ardent admirers waving red Jackson banners, hundreds of Dukakis dele-
columnists. This stunt was worse than that pulled by Tom Harnisch, a Wisconsin delegate who, a day earlier, had worn a hat that looked like a large chunk of cheese.
gates who faithfully kept their blue banners on the floor, and some who didn't care that much for Jackson but respected what he was saying and what he had done for the party.
"So what's to take a picture of?" many lamented. Some answered their own question when they found a woman walking about the convention floor with her pet rat in her hands.
Others, like those desperate enough to photograph Dave Barry with a box on his head, obviously had nothing better to do. Estimates of ratios of media representatives to Democratic Party representatives reached as high as 3 to 1 and 4 to 1, so those extra reporters and photographers had to go out and get something other than the news of the convention to fill their pages back home. Maybe this was indeed the problem.
Much news was generated from the Omni, most of it good to Democrats, some of it downright exciting and heart-stirring, and some of it, as expected, dull.
Newspapers and broadcasters ran many serious stories and many human-interest features. Among these were the swapping of political convention buttons; the
warmth and intelligence of Walter Cronkite; the appearances of Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, John F. Kennedy Jr. and Jimmy Carter; and the reference by the Kansas delegation to their state as "the air capital of the world."
These were covered well, as was the immense amount of news. But the glorification of a stupid act performed by a man who admitted he was out to show up his colleagues was certainly a part of the convention coverage that should be forgotten and for which those involved in covering that act should be admonished.
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Reflections on the nature of conventions
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By Paul Greenberg
Syndicated
Columnist
Every quadrenium, the hardened among the inky wretches of the press, or those who pretend to be, resolve that this year, it will be different. This year, there will be no romanticizing the two great parties' convergence on some all too suspecting city in search of self, patronage and a president — in roughly that order.
This year, with eyes unblinking and heart unbroken, the press corps might resolve to report this cynical circus straight. But something always happens to make every convention not just memorable but nostalgic even before it's over, as though the pictures on the TV were already dipped in sepia. That's because a presidential nominating convention is a great ritual, and like any great ritual, it allows the present to express its own hope and anguish and, yes, mediocrity through the forms of
the past, creating something new that is also old.
No matter how jaded or bored, no matter how determined not to be moved or appalled or delighted or entertained, the observer can still divine something magical about a national political convention even in this post-oralorical epoch. Who would not appreciate at least the irony when the band at a Democratic convention breaks out on Thursday's Arena Again," or when the great roster of party heroes from Jefferson-Jackson to Roosevelt-Truman is called?
party'') The Democrats proceed to nominate John F. Kennedy, further evidence for the possibility of causing causes get the best speeches.
Every keynote and nominating speech invites comparisons with the past. What speaker today can match the vitriol of Everett Dirksen telling off Tom Dewey's MeToo Republicans at the '52 convention? His audience went ahead and nominated Dwight Eisenhower over Robert A. Taft anyway, putting strategy over sentiment. Who today could touch Eugene McCarthy's final plea for Adilia Stevenson in 1960? ('Do not leave this prophet without honor in his own
When the nostalgia of it all gets too thick and the learned commentary grows olympian and the pontification of polls, punits and expressants threatens to overload the country's already jammed circuits, a few words from H.L. McNeil have hinted at this perspective. Here is that distinguished commentator's summary of one such quadrennial rite:
"Here was a great party convention, after almost a week of cruel labor, nominating the weakest candidate before it. How many of the delegates were honestly for him I don't know, but certainly it could not have been more than a third. There was absolutely nothing in his record to make them feel uncomfortable about the magnitude of relatively small experience and achievement in national affairs; he was also one whose competence was plainly in doubt, and whose good faith was far from
clear. His only really valuable asset was his name, and even that was associated with the triumphs and glories of the common enemy. To add to the unpleasantness there was grave uneasiness about his physical capacity for the job they were trusting to him."
That's the way Mencken wrapped up the Democratic National Convention of 1932 and the standard bearer it finally chose: Franklin Delano Roosevelt. To read Mencken at this merciless distance is to be assured again of the utter fallibility of learned commentators. Anyone so bold as to second-guess the delegates should be made to read Mr. Mencken's essay before committing a single overly sure thought to paper, which has a gosh-awful way of retaining it over the ages.
Paul Greenberg is a syndicated columnist who writes for the Pine Bluff Commercial in Pine Bluff, Ark., and whose columns are distributed by the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.