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October 17, 1991 Page 4 Kilpatrick Goodman From Plage 3 those drugs found to be (1) safe and (2) effective. Abundant anecdotal evidence now attests tacrine’s efTectiveness. For some victims it works. I am hearing from their familks. The drug may not work for every Alzheimer’s vktim, but it works for them. In a few cases the improvement is described as "stunning” or "almost unbelievable.” Tacrine appears also to be relatively safe. Preliminary data indicate liver damage in some patients, but in every test case the damage has proved to be reversible. The story of tacrine, or Cognex, takes me back to 1974 and the story of amygdalin. or Laetrile. At the time, a good many persons suffering from terminal cancer believed Laetrile gave them relief. A furious controversy developed between the scientific establishment and the desperate patients. In California, a doctor actually was sem to jail for six months for prescribing Laetrile. On appeal he won a resounding decision in California’s Fourth District, where Juc^e Robert Staniforth said: "So long as there is no clear evidence that Laetrile is unsafe to the user, I believe each individual patient has a right to obtain the substance from a licensed physician who feels it appropriate to prescribe it to him._ "The issue here is human liberty. Can the informed cancer-ridden patient be limited in choice of treatment to ’state sanctioned' alternatives? The right to control one’s own body is not restricted to the wise; it includes the ’foolish’ refusal of medical treatment” Exactly so. And the same libertarian principles apply in the matter of tacrine. The advisory committee’s coldly scientific appraisal was that Wamer-Lambert’s initial tests did not establish "a clinically meaningful beneriL" The drug produced a small beneficial effect on a certain measure of mental function, but it had no overall effect on the patient "as assessed by a skilled observer." The company will undertake additional clinical trials, but full-scale approval of tacrine is years down the rood. The big issue is not the drug. The big issiM is freedom. How far should the government go in protcaing the people from what the government declares to be folly? In giving the FDA absolute power over drugs. Congress has imposed liberalism in its most evil form. The omnipotent state knows best! The law is irKlifferent to the fate of an individual. All must be Heated alike! This is inhuman arrogance, breathtaking in its rejection of individual liberty. In time the commotion over Laetrile subsided. Perhaps the stuff really was worthless. Perhaps the cancer victims who demanded access to the drug were foolish. But God and the Constitution have given free bom Americans a right to be foolish. Above all, to borrow from Dr. Kessler’s bureaucratic rhetoric, that right should be maintained. Halloween tales Colonnades and Pegasus are inviting members of the college community to come and hear tales of terror and dread at Phantasm and Phobia, a Halloween literary happening. The event will be hekl Friday. October 25th at 9 p.m. in the lounge of West Hall. From Page 3 work, even at home. Slowly, they have won some tools of self-defense. In the shouting match of his word against hers, it is not always or only his that is heard. Date rape, battered women's defense, sexual assault. With each modest change in attitude and law, there has been a stunning overreaction on the part of many men. Where women feel vulnerable to male assault, men feel vulnerable to a woman's accusation. Rape is still vastly underreported. Twice as many men kill their wives as wives kill husbands. Sexual harassment remains as widespread as it is hard to prove. Yet when a Willie Smith is arrested, how many men think: Any woman could accuse me. When a battered wife who killed her hu^Kind is granted clemency, how many think: It’s open season on husbands. And when Clarence Thomas is hit with a charge, how many think: You can't even ask a girl out anymore. In real life, false accusations are few. maybe even fewer than false acquittals. But in fantasy life, they are the "reverse discrimination" storylines of the time, the female pit bull attack on the ankle of innocent man. Her word is not always the right one. The chore of proving in public what happened in private remains as difficull as ever. There is no assurance that airing Anita Hill's charges and Clarence Thomas’ countercharges would lead to a crisp ckan-cut winner. But it was not for the all-male Senate committee to silence "her word" before it was spoken in public. At the eleventh hour and the flfty-ninth minute these senators finally heard, loud and clear, the voices of women. The women they represent His word, her word. This is our word to Congress: Listen up. Homecoming '91 Don't forget to vote for Homecoming Queen Tuesday. Wednesday, and Thursday. October 29-31. fRee 7RAVEL, C/iSH. L eKceueNT business eKP€RI€NCeil openings available for indrwiduats or student organizations to promote the country’s most successful SPRING hRiAK fours' Oil Inter-Campus (Programs f-800-327-60f3 a REDKEN Ambassador 2402 S. Church St. Burlington, NC 27215 (919) 570-1533 $10.00 off REDKEN perms $10.00 off any color or highlighting $2.00 off haircut & style $35.00 for 400 minutes $5.00 off gel nails $2.00 off manicures $15.00 for 200 minutes for men & women on a WOLFF tanning bed valid only with ad next to the Golden Corral WIN $100!!! for winning entry in the PHI ALPHA THETA History Paper Contest. ELIGIBILITY: -papers will have been written b; a Student of Elon College -papers will treat a U^c of a historical nature -papers may have been prepared originally for a history course , for a course other than history, or especially for the competition -papers will be submitted while the writer is an Elon student or within one year of leaving Elon -papers will be 10-20 pages long (double spaced, typed) submitted in five copies on 8* X ir paper CRXTERIA for the AWARD: The Paper Prize will be awarded on the basis oL. -evidence of original scholarship -evidence of analysis as distinct from description -appropriate documentation -clear organization and concise writing, adhering to accepted standards of structure and grammar -consistent use of a single guide for style DEADLINE DECEMBER 2,1991 to Mrs. Brenda Cooper Social Sciences Secretary Powell 313A Must ccHnpkte a short application ^ time of entiy
Elon University Student Newspaper
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Oct. 17, 1991, edition 1
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