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Tuesday, April 5, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Plan to increase transplants must also include education
The University of Kansas Medical Center has announced that establishing an organ transplant center will be one of its top priorities in the next five years. But the center's effectiveness will be limited unless more organ donors are found.
Bob Randall, transplant coordinator for the Midwest Organ Bank in Wichita, said there were now 10,000 people on waiting lists for kidnneys across the nation. And on any given day, there are 400 people waiting for heart transplants and an equal number waiting for liver transplants.
But the lack of willing donors is appalling. About 20,000 people are determined to be brain dead each year, but only about 4,500 of those people are organ donors.
Handall said the lack of donors was largely attributable to the public's misconceptions about organ donations. Many people falsely believe that the donor's body will be mutilated, prohibiting open-casket funerals. But bodily organs can be removed without noticeable damage to the body's appearance.
Another misconception is that there are costs involved in donating organs. The truth is that the hospital that removes the organs from a donor will absorb all costs of the donation.
Thus, a lack of public education stands in the way of ill people receiving the organs they need to survive. People should inquire about organ donations before an accident occurs, and they should discuss it with their families beforehand if they decide to donate organs.
The KU Med Center plans to increase its heart, kidney, bone marrow and cornea transplants and expand its services to include liver, pancreas, heart-lung and kidney-pancreas transplants. But these efforts would be much more effective if the Med Center made people more receptive to donating organs by distributing more information about transplants.
The Med Center's decision to increase its transplant facilities is commendable, but it should be complemented by increasing public awareness. Lives depend on it.
Alan Player for the editorial board
Meese losing ability to serve
What instinct drives Attorney General Edwin Meese III to cling to his position as the No.1 official in the justice department?
Certainly not a desire to serve the people of this nation. The term "public service" is not difficult to define, and recent events have made it clear that his effectiveness to "serve" is in serious jeopardy.
Continuing criminal investigations of Meese not only cast a shadow on his own reputation but also taint the office that he occupies. Simply put, he cannot both do his job and defend himself against the accusations being made.
The office of attorney general should not be clouded by accusations of impropriety. The mere question of wrongdoing is enough to prevent Meese from fulfilling the responsibilities of his job; thus, he should step down.
As attorney general, Edwin Meese's first and only loyalty should be to the people of the United States, not to himself.
Van lenerette for the editorial board
Editorials in this column are the opinions of the editorial board
Other Voices
Sex offenders' photos are a reminder
The Undergraduate Student Government Senate's decision to post police composites of sex offenders on campus and in town is a positive step that will remind students of the reality of sex crimes and hopefully cause them to reconsider walking unescorted at night
Because the composites depict men suspected of raping students and members of the State College community, they should entreat students to take more precautions at night so they are not in a position to become the next victim — sitting in the police station describing the person who raped them, sitting at home scared and frightened or worse, being killed.
worry, being in touch with others. By circulating the composites, USG is putting sex offenders' faces on display; while most women may not recognize the faces, they still serve as a reminder of potential dangers.
It is true that some fear may be involved by the composites. But women living in fear of being raped is a reality; the fear the posters may create becomes secondary to the awareness and safety they promote.
The Daily Collegian Pennsylvania State University
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Moviemakers distort real drama
With a little twist, story of child trapped in well could make a good film
How about this as a plot for a thriller TV movie?
There's this sweet little girl, only 18
old, playing outside her home in a Texas
park.
Suddenly, terror. She falls into a hole. It is a dee and narrow abandoned well.
deep and hot boiling molson well.
She's alive, but the challenge is to get her out of the well, which is not much wider than a drainpipe. There's no way an adult can squeeze in and get to her. And if they try to widen it by digging, she will be smothered.
The rescuer work out a plan and go to work. For three days, they frantically drill another shaft next to the one the girl is in.
Reporter and TV crews flock to the scene. The whole country watches and waits, filled with dread. Will they reach her in time? Will she live or die?
Her parents rejoice. The rescuers hug each other. Much of the nation weeps.
At last, the second shaft is finished, and they tunnel to her and bring her up. She is cold and injured, but alive.
Sounds familiar? Of course. It's the dramatic true story of baby Jessica McClure, who held the attention of the whole country about six months ago.
And the dramatic story goes on, but in a different way.
In a fascinating account this week, the New York Times described how the Jessica story has evolved into something tacky.
The movie people have swooped down on Midland, Texas, with their contracts, deals, money offers and proposed scripts.
They're competing to buy the rights to the story from those who lived the story — the rescuers and Jessica's parents.
And human nature being what it is, the rescuers now are fighting among themselves.
Mike Royko
They've split into two groups. One is made up of
Syndicated Columnist
Each group is claiming to have the rights to the story. Each group has hired lawyers. And each group is accusing the other of greed while claiming only pure motives for itself.
one orical rescues, the police, firefighters and other public employees. The other group is made up of the volunteers.
The Hollywood people are, of course, acting as they always do. Which means that compared to them, a used car dealer is a living saint.
Some want to spice up the story by making the marriage of Jessica's parents kiss. Then, of course, the child's peril and rescue bring them back together, get it?
back together, give
Others want to create one heroic figure among the 400 people who took part in the rescue. Got to have a star, right?
And while the Hollywood hustlers are making their pitch, the two competing rescue groups are squabbling over who gets what if a deal is made.
Having dealt with Hollywood dealmakers, I know how sleazy they can be. And I also know how lacking in creativity most of them are. Consider what they produce. Without car crashes, naked boys getting from sewered heads and everybody saying "s---", nine out of 10 movies wouldn't be made.
So I'm not surprised that they've overlooked a far superior movie plot than the one they've been chasing in Texas.
Let's face it, we all know what happened to little Jessica. That means we all know how a movie about her will end. Do we want to sit through almost two hours of guys digging a shaft when we
know the outcome?
Not me. But here's a plot that would be a grabber.
The movie opens with a little girl playing in her yard in a Texas town. She falls into an old narrow well. She's trapped. The rescuers frantically dig a parallel shaft. They tunnel to her and bring her up cold, injured but alive. Her parents rejoice, everybody hugs, and the nation weeps and sighs with relief.
Right. Same plot. But we do all that in the first 15 or 20 minutes, which is really all it takes to tell that part of the story.
Then the rest of the movie develops. In come the Hollywood hustlers with their contracts, their deals, their big-money offers.
And we watch as greed, envy and distrust set in. All those good-old-boy rescues are suddenly in warring camps. Pals who hugged are now ready to duke it out. Everybody is saying, "Where's mine? How big is the pie? Is there enough for everybody?"
The Hollywood hustlers are tripping over each other, trying to nail down a deal. And deals are made but quickly unmade when somebody's agent says they ought to have a bigger piece of the action.
How would my script end? I have the perfect closer. One of the dealmakers finally gets the names of the rescuers he needs on a contract. Then he persuades Jessica's folks to sign.
Every so often, we can cut to Jessica's parents warily peering through their curtains at the dealmakers camped in the front yard, while Jessica asks, "When can I go out and play
He rushes from Jessica's house triumphantly waving the contract over his head.
Trust me, it'll work. Everybody loves a happy ending.
Letter was ridiculous
I'm worried, really worried. Has anyone noticed how ridiculous Mark von Schlemmer's latest letter is? It is not surprising that a man who misspeiled the word calendar in the fourth grade would think that Christ's death on the cross was an April Fool's day drank.
According to Encyclopedia Americana, April Fool's Day was a custom that began in France in the mid-1500s when some people refused to acknowledge the changing of New Year's Day from April 1 to Jan. 1. Therefore, April Fool's Day was not even in existence when Christ died for our sins. And because Jesus did die for our sins, I agree that it would have been interesting if the original Good Friday was on April 1. According to what I have just presented, it
would have fallen on New Year's Day. Christ died for our sins to mark the beginning of a new and everlasting life.
For that same reason, we call it Good Friday. Our salvation is a reason for rejoicing. Mark, you have no reason to fear that we will call the day you die "good," unless you have plans to die for all of us the way that Jesus Christ did.
Von Schlemmer's letter might have been a little less unacceptable had it been printed on April 1 as an April Fool's day joke, except for the fact that it also would have been Good Friday. I'm sorry, Mark, but the cutesy little letters have gone too far.
Eric Willer
Overland Park freshman
Learn about New York
In reply to Katy Monk's March 28th editorial entitled "Kansas needn't cater to fads," let's get one thing straight: You know nothing about New York!
I happen to be a resident of the state of New York who lives to the "Wild West" of the
Hudson River. As I made my way out to Kansas, I was able to see the unchartered Ohio Valley and Louisiana Purchase. That is what this part of the country is, isn't it? Being from New York, I don't know any better. The reason I came to KU was to see the dust bowls, wild Indians, roaming buffalo, mud-brick houses and, of course, Dorothy and Toto.
Oh yes, then the deal about sushi. Of course, no Kansasan has ever gone to Kansas City and had a nice sushi dinner. There aren't any sushi bars in the Midwest, now are there?
And let's not forget about your well-known fact that New York doesn't care about Kansas. In addition, we don't care about Iowa, Massachusetts or any other state. Heck, we don't even care about upstate New York.
People like you who are so narrow-minded and not open to anything outside your "home-stead" love to give New York a hard hat because don't you come and help yourself? You afraid that you might get beaten and raped? Of course, that would never happen in Kansas.
BLOOM COUNTY
Boyd Lund
Woodbourne, N.Y., freshman
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