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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1989)
Editorial Frat house closings indicative of crunch I II.. Aiiinuil House I lives on in lugene I'lir rowdy 1*17(5 fr.it .omedy starring |olin Belushi was lilincil here, and that's long been .1 dubious sour, e of pride to both llie general student population and the t'niverslty s (.reek system Now it appears th.it some of the campus fraternity houses have I.. living up 01 down to the image los lered In the fictional Delta Tau Chi fraternity During month, the 1 ilv's fire marshal's nffic e ordered the i Insure of five houses (Beta l lieta hi. l.amhda Chi Alpha, Sigma Alpha l.psilon Sigma Chi and I’lli (.amnia Delta) for numerous v iolations of fire saletv ( odes ['he violations in. hided faultv fire alarm systems, him ke.l exits and gas leaks In some . ases. residents Were sleeping in rooms and attic spai es that were not designed to he slept in l liese 1111 idents. however, are more than just examples of the Creeks mi shell.iv mg. Alter all. coop living organ i/.a turn l’arr I owei also l.n es 1 Insure hast spring, the I niversi tv itself . ondemned some of its student houses that had fall eii into a state bev on.l repair In a i rowded housing market such as Kugene's, suhstan .laid housing is taxed well beyond its proper limits A group of rowdv guvs probably puts a lot of strain on a house When that groups size doubles be. a use members (an t find housing elsewhere the strain will become loo much I'he efler ts ol sm h overtaxing are being felt now ironi (.ally in a wav that worsens the crunch Apparently some of the fraternities, vvliit h house up to it) men e.11 h may not be ready to open their doors in the fall H1.1t isn’t the tire mar shal's concern, of course (and that office is not doing any one a disservice by doing its job), hut it should he of great i oik ern to the I 'Diversity It should also be noted that the Iratermtv members are not. in some of the . ases entirely responsible for the < los mgs of then houses Mam of the fraternities rent then buildings, and it is as much the responsibility of the land lord as tlie tenant to make sum the buildings are sale and habitable Where the fraternities have been negligent is within then own organizations Soule fraternitv members have complained about the closings oi curing in the summer while most ol then numbers are avvav But the initial in spections of the I'niversitv's Creek houses occurred last April, whi. h should have given pleutv ol tune for members and their alumni to bring their buildings up ... Also those recalcitrant members should ask themselves il tliev really preferred then houses had been situ! down during the s< hoid year. _Letters Polio The Knterald will attempt to print all letters ( on taming comments on topic s ot interest to the l niver sit\ (.oinmnnitv Comments must he tar tuaih act u rate and retrain from personal attac ks on the c liar.u let ot others Letters to the editor must he limited to no more tli.m 2,r'll words, legible, signed and the identilic ation ot the writer must he verified when the letter is sub milted The Kmerald reserves the right to edit any letter lor length or st\ hv ()rcf>on Ihiil\ _ - Emerald PO H«>\ *1“* lujim. Ofrifon v’*ll The Oregon Daily Emerald <s published Tuesday and Thursday-during met b» the Oregon Daily Emerald Publishing Co at the University of Of gene Oregon Daily publication begins with the fan T,* Emerald-is operated independent^ of the University a fh ffici ih-'d t . . f the f.ri Memorial Union and is a member ot the a- .it#d Ihe Emerald -s private property The unlawful removal or use of t aper Editor • ' • *' a Managing Editor A News Editor Graphics E dltor V • Night Editor Associate Editors CommunityrHigher Education Ga* . Me <■, Entertainment/Student Activities hr . .%» •* Advertising Sales oft V. A. y Production r». t • n !,• : :,v, ••* •• jftd White General Staff Advertising Director 1 r’T»>. Assistant to the Publisher ear 0* Production Manager M > H Advertising Coordinator 1 i : i < Classified Sales » M Math Accounts Receivable Circulation Newsroom Classified Advertising Display Advertising Production. Graphic Services 9 on the Press 686 SS11 686 4343 S86 3712 686 4 381 FRE&WAY ENVIRONMENTALIST T _Forum_ Abortion deprives children of life By W illiam Moore Willi the Supreme Court‘.s t onluming le evalualion of the Kite vs Wade decision, people ,ue bei inning ini musingly vo t .11 .ihoiit then views concern mg abortion The opposing stiles .lie so f.u .ip.lit that it is sometimes huni to believe lhe\ _Commentary_ ale ile.illlig with the same is sue Agent ics and organizations such as the National Organizu tion (or Women. Planned Par enthoud and the National Mini lion Rights l eague are leading ilie wav in seeking aggressively lo i onvini e us that ahortion is a sate and necessary medu al pro i edure and involves a fimda au nt,.! light of women to eon trol then mt n lives (llhers. mi hiding mvsell nr gue the position that an abut tion unjustly, deprives an al reads living, innocent human being ol lus or her lilt* How i an we sort through all the rhetoric to arrive at what is true anti right m this issue/ Depending on who is asking and whit h ipiestions are asked polls t an he used to show that a majority ol Amerii .ins is either "pro i hon e” or "pro life I rankly however, this seems to me he inconsequential exi ept as a means ol i onv in* ing pul it i t urns that they had belter slip port one side or the other Right and wrong, and l.ut and falsehood, are not determined by majority vote All ol us /iee/ right, and rse t an easily take that feeling ol personal t ertaintv as some sort of irrefutable proof that rye are right t’nless y\e recognize the built-in trap of believing that "Iret ause I leel right, i must he right" (or. a corollary, "people I think are right agree with me therefore yye must he right"), we are likely to hold yvliat is. quite frankly a foolishly high regard for our own assumptions and opinions It is not how confident I am in mv being rigid Unit deter mines the merit <>l my position K.ither. it is the validity of my .issumptions. the soundness and relevant \ of tin fat Is and the quality of the reasoning whit h I hav e based on those as sumptions and farts I fere are some of rnv t.ii Is • iii \ VV Li ley is a professor of fetal phvsinlngv at the Na tional Women's Hospital in \ui kland. New Zealand, and is known as the "father of fetology In his hook . \ ( use tya/nsf Mnirlion. he points out. "Biologically at no stage tan we subscribe to the view that the fetus is a mere appen dage of the mother (emetic al Iv mother and babv are sepa rale individuals from cuncop turn • In t h 1 ohei of 1 ‘III " the Inst International Conference on Abortion brought together re spei led authorities from .(round the world iii the fields of medic me law ethic s and the so< i.iI sciences. Hie first major question this seculai group of experts i onstdered was "When does human life begin?" I heir c one lusion "(We) ( ould find no point in time be tween the union of the sperm and egg and the birth of the infant at which point vvt- could say that this was not a human life The c hanges occ tiring be tween implant, a six weeks em bryo a six month fetus, a one week old c h iId ui a mature adult are merely stages of de velopment and maturation • Ie i Everett Loop outgc ting I S Surgeon (amend, has slat ed. biologists uniformly take the position that life begins at conception There is no logical reason win the- pro-abortinnist should trv to arrive at a differ ent definition when lie* is talk ing about people • Planned Parenthood itself published literature in August. 1‘ltcl whit It stated. "An abor tion kills the life of a baby after it has begun.” What is different today? Have the Imsic facts of biology i hanged somehow in a 20-year period? 1 contend that our mod ern < ullnr.il .11 < eptance u! ubor linn does not come from more mi ent .mil better knowledge, but rathei from .1 delibenite turning away from know ledge How <.ui otherwise nornwil. well-educated and intelligent adults cMiitinue to deny su< li unambiguous wed I-document ed (ai ts ol life? Given the uni versal human cupm its lor dent a! and self del option. I believe that mam are immovably < 0111 milted to i ertain kinds ol be havior or to a particular social or political agenda and are un willing to face into the moral implications inherent in such t.u ts I suspei t that others push awas the truth about when life begins simply because they must or else far e enormous guilt, despair and sell hatred I suggest that the pro-c hoicc community is engaging in something that communist his torians would understand and recognize instantly a kind of biological "revisionism Sim e the fundamental ta< ts of biology do not lead them where they wish to go. main in the pro i lion e movement have chosen simply to ignore or deny these tai ls and are at tempting to base their pre-de termined conclusion on some thing besides truth Our refusal to accept reality, however does not alter that re ality although it may well blind us morally by plat ing <1 higher value on doing as I please (regardless ol the moral < onsequem es). or on seeing my panic ular set of social or politi cal issues pushed forward, than I place on being guided by oh jective truth and what is right. I merely place myself in opposi tion to yy hut is true and right. I do not change it There is no question that tre mendous hardship can accom pany crisis pregnant les The question is whether there are not moral limitations on how we yvdl seek solutions, 1 e . are there some things that we are physically and legally capable of doing that we should not do? There are other, less fatal Turn to Abortion, Page 3
