PUBLISHED BY THE DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS Of AMERICA January /February 1994 E T .. ..,, Volume XXII Number 1 Biology, Ethics, 1d Socialist Values ti Margaret O'Brien Stein/els on Euthanasia . Dorothee Benz on Homosexuality and Biology Claire N. Kaplan on the Disabilities Rights Movement INSIDE DEMOCRATIC LEFT BIOLOGY, ETHICS, DSAction. .15 AND SOCIALIST VALUES The 1993 DSA National Convt.:ntion .. 16 Euthanasia and the Left by Margaret O'Brien Stein/els . .3 On the Left by Harry Fleischman. .20 Il's In the Jeans: Biology, Culture, and the Struggle for Gay Liberation DSA Commission New.s. .21 by Dorothee Benz. 6 Janie Higgins RcporL~ . .24 Toward a Socialist Movement Without Barriers cover pholos -- mp: Meryl L~vin/lmp.icl Vuuals by Claire N. Kaplan . .. IO bonom ldl: I larvcy hnldc/lmpact Vuuah bouome righ1· An<lr~w l."hlenstcmllmpact \tm.als health care system our major issue. 1994, DSA will abo work in congres­ EDITORIAL DSA members have served on the sional campaign:. that tar~t anti-re­ Clinton Health Care Task Force and in form incumbenb and that ~upport HEALTH CARE: the leadership and rank and file of single-payer advocates We will also national and state single-payer coali­ continue our work m ~t.ate t..:am­ tions. Perhaps most importantly, in paigns to e!>tablLh !>mcle-payer :.ys­ THE CRUCIAL 1991 we organized a twenty-two-city tems. national tour of over forty Canadian Th~ m :.t delicate aspect of l1ur health experts (from our sibling party, work i:. hO\.\ '' e balance our efforts in YEAR AHEAD the Ne\.v Democrats) that helped to improving the Clmt l propo:.<ll and galvanize the single-payer movement pushing for _m le-pa rer. Thi~ is not BY STEVE TARZYNSKI, M.D. into action No other organization a new d 1lemma for the left The ten­ These days the idea of activist was m a position to carry out such a sion between reform and re,•oluhon democratic government is about as major tour. We have done a good job has exbted within every socialist alien to American mainstream politi­ as the socialist. current within the movement m \\estem indu!>tria ltzed cal discourse as the existence of a single-payer movement, but still have democraci~ . It , .... 11 always be with soC1alist movement that can contest significant opportunities to improve us. The lutton lies m putting into for power and be capable of govern­ DSA locals' level of activism and our practice iichael Hamn~oY notion ing. Yet without Hte former, the latter recruitment of activists into DSA cc11tmued 011 page 23 will never come to exist. Democratic through this issue. In the coming socialists must therefore focus on year, as we close in for the final legis­ issues that will help relegitimate the lative phase of this fight, the national activist democratic state and help DSA leadership and the DSA health DE fOCRATIC LEFf create a new moral climate based on care task force will focus efforts in Mtl1za mg Edllor social solidarity. The principal issue these hvo areas. Alan Charney today that meets this requirement is The DSA National Convention in November unanimously adopted a Pro.iud1 national health care reform. That is Da,;d Glenn why DSA has made it an organiza­ resolution (see text on page 23) that tional priority. Our members have clearly reaffirmed our support of the E.dit r Ccmmnttt Joanne Barkan, Dorothee Benz, been active at all levels of the health Mc Dermott-Conyers-W el I stone single-payer bills (HR1200/S491). It Howard Croft, Mitch Horowitz, reform issue for two decades. We can Sherri Le,,·ine, brine Phillips take a modest but certain amount of also stipulated DSA's advocacy of a credit for helping to give the issue the "state option" for single payer in the Fou11dmg E.drt attention it has today. However, final legislative package. The resolu­ .Michael Harrington (1925--1989) there 1s still much to be done, with tion also stated that DSA will organ­ perhaps only a year left in which to ize and parhc1pate in anti-corporate do it. campaigns targeting private health We've met some of the modest insurance, pharmaceutical lobbies, goals that the national leadership set and any other corporate or political when DSA decided to make support forces that seek to destroy real re­ for a single-payer Canadian-style form. If a vote 1s delayed beyond fall 2 DEMOCRATIC LETT I n t r o d u c ti o n: Biology, Ethics, and Socialist Values Being a socialist means 11ot reacl1i11xfor the quickfix. The three articles we print here look at iss11es of biology and ethics 011 which people ofgood u1if /, h11111am· 111lentio11s, and, yes, socialist politics, differ Some are not even iss11es that DSA lzas debated, but all are topics that the authors believe an organization concerned wzth health care and social justice must face. Margaret 0 ·Brien Ste111fels argues that wlten progressives support legalized e11tha11as1a tltey should exam me the long-range 1mplicatio11s of such a move, especially i11 light of tlte prospect of managed l1ealtf1 care. For w/1011'1 would the hemlock lie poured? Would more drmks go to the terminally ill but flllly conscious and mmlally competent ad11lt whose agony we wish to ease, or lo the unpoverished aged, 11erso11s with AIDS, a11d people of color whose cv11ti11ued heaW1 care mould dra111 7mblic coffers? Dorothee Benz ca11 t ion:; aga i 11st look i11g for a s11nple "genetic" ca llse for homoserna It t y a11d tl1erefore limiting the gro1111ds on ur11ic11 the battlt•for f11ll soc ta I a11d civil rights m11st be fought Whatever we might gain byarg11i11g that homosex11ality is a l1iologicalg1ven. shepoi11ts out, would be offset by the samel>acklasl1 that affects other gro11ps 111111l1le to change their gendl'r, color, qr pl1ysical co11d1tio11 Claire Kaplan warns against easy sympatl1y and "do-gooderism" toward tl1e disabled community Don't try to ease the 11am, site says, 1111til you know the source of the p11111 Th ts means listenmg to the disabled, making DSA acces;;ible, and fi11di11g lite common interests (jobs, education, and l1ealtl1 care, for starters) that allow for coaltlion b11ild111g Not all ofour reader-:- will agree with every slatemml i11 tltese articles. We may or may 1101 be members ofthe groups 1111der diswss1on Homever, as we tit ink a/Jo11t tl1ese issues and debate tlwir place 111 011r own lives a11d 111 the agmda~ of DSA locals, let us ask, t11 eaclt case As a member of one of tltese groups, what polici6 wo11/d I consider fair' -- Maxine Phillips Ellthanasia: Prospects and Perils BY MARGARET O'BRIEN STEINFELS he word e11tl1anas1a, "good death," 1s dition be confirmed by a second physician. the catch-all phrase describing refer­ It is too early to predict the outcome in enda ina number of states that would Oregon. But if the initiative passes, the state T allow doctors to end the lives of pa­ would become the world's first jurisdiction to tients who are terminally ill. Oregon will have give full legal approval to the killmg of termi­ such an initiative on its November 1994 ballot nally ill people. (Holland's current--and legally despite defeats in California (1992) and the state ambiguous -- 4rrangement comes closest to al­ of Washington (1991). lowing euthanasia: it remains against the law, The Oregon initiative 1s described as physi­ but physicians are not prosecuted when they kill cian aid-in-suicide; the others have been de­ a terminally ill patient. The practice has led to scribed as physician aid-in-dying. Details vary charges that some physicians have abused on the bills' provisions. The right-to-die (or prosecutorial leniency by euthanizing patients death with dignity) movement has generally who are not terminally ill or who have not framed these measures to provide that a compe­ requested it.) tent, terminally ill patient with less than six Despite their carefully worded use of months to live can ask a physician to end (or "physician aid-in-dying," all of these measures help end) his or her life. The bills have usually cross a line in allowing a physician to kill di­ provided that a patient sign a statement re­ rectly or help kill a patient. This change in the q uesting "euthanasia," that the signing be wit­ law would reverse a widely held precept in nessed by individuals not involved in the pa-· medical ethics against the taking of human life. tient's care, and that the patient's terminal con- In fact, the drive to change the law is not led by 1994 3 biology, ethics, and socialist values physicians or medical care givers, but by the greater protection for people on respirators. In Hemlock Society and the right-to-die move­ many states, people can sign "advance direc­ ment along with individuals who have watched tives" that tell their family and physician a loved one suffer through a prolonged terminal whether and when to end treatment if they are illness. The measure was also supported in unable to make their preferences known. In California by the Northern and Southern Cali­ some places it may be harder to terminate treat­ fornia ACLU, the Gray Panthers, the Unitarian ment than to refuse 1t in the first place. Adults Universalists, and the AIDS Council of Los who are alert and competent can generally ref­ Angeles. use medical treatment, although in life-threat­ The goal of "death with dignity" propo­ ening situations they may be required to seek nents is to provide terminally ill people a ra· counseling or psychological assessments.