| Show f gait £akf pibitnc bt Section A Monday ary Morning-Janu- ID 1987 Page 10 Legislature Shouldn’t Restrict University Access to Animals An animal welfare group again is advocating legislation this session that would make it more difficult for the University of Utah to obtain animals for biomedical research To support such a bill Utah legislators would be adding to public costs as well as impeding medical progress when the state can least afford it The group organized as the Citizen’s Animal Management and Protection Society has developed an especially effective strategy this year Instead of opposing animal experimentation per se the 200 or so members are championing the cause of local government control of local services They contend that because local agencies finance and operate animal shelters they should be the ones to determine how to dispose of unclaimed dogs and cats t That argument might prevail if iot for the fact that local control in this case would add to the cost of university research At a time when state budgets are being curtailed any in- crease could cut into projects that contribute to cures and treatments of countless diseases and disabilities both in humans and animals Utah law now requires public shelters to turn over unclaimed dogs and cats to the University of Utah Vivarium upon request In 1985 the university paid Wasatch Front pounds nearly $15000 or $15 apiece for 1000 dogs That represented only a small portion of the 25000 area dogs put to sleep that year If forced to buy specially bred animals for experimentation as CAMPS leaders prefer the vivarium estimates the cost would have been $400000 CAMPS members contend their proposed amendment which would let public agencies decide for themselves whether to sell animals to the university and at what price would not cut off the supply of research animals They’ve conducted a survey showing that at least three agencies — Davis County West Valley City and Orem — would continue to sell animals to the university ani-:m- This claim ignores local agency susceptibility to outspoken special interests and distance from university budget problems Pound employees are apt to be animal advocates first and research supporters second Therefore even agencies now promising to sell animals to the university could easily cave in to emotional pets rights campaigns if the law were altered Such a campaign already has stymied university efforts to obtain dogs for critical research according to the university’s animal care coordinator Dwight Bird With support from Stephen Chapman Maternity Ruling Is a Born Loser Chicago Tribune Service The Supreme Court decision upholding special job protection for pregnant workers has been applauded as a victory for working women and the family It actually is a confused verdict that permits the sort of inequality Congress has acted to prevent besides harming the employment prospects of women The case involved Lilian Garland who in 1982 left her job as a receptionist at California Federal Savings and Loan to have a baby When she returned a few months later she learned that her post had been filled Rejecting other jobs offered by the company Garland sued arguing that Cal Fed had broken a state law requiring firms to give women time off for pregnancy and childbirth Cal Fed argued that the law mandated a type of discrimination prohibited by federal law Some history is in order The 1964 Civil Rights Act forbids firms to discriminate on the basis of sex In 1976 the Supreme Court ruled that discrimination on the basis of pregnancy wasn’t the same thing and thus was allowed Congress then passed a law declaring that women affected by pregnancy or childbirth “shall be treated the same for as all employment-relate- d purposes other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work” The law carefully avoided requiring that any benefits be extended to pregnant women It merely said that if benefits are available to workers with comparable conditions they must be provided to expectant mothers as well The California law under which Garland sued takes exactly the opposite tack It doesn’t require firms to provide any benefits to other sick or disabled workers It only compels them to grant new mothers up to four months off with their jobs essentially guaranteed on their return The result is that a California employer who notes the federal law and declines to provide any disability leaves would violate CAMPS Salt Lake County has defied e Utah’s law by contractHumane the with ing Society of Utah a private agency for animal adoption and euthanasia This forces university researchers to spend more time and travel further to find animals pound-seizur- There is little question that animals are needed for medical research Without them experiments would have to be done on humans or not at all leaving people with mysterious medical problems to suffer and die without hope al If ks like a duck walks like a duck It makes sense to use pound animals for that research Breeding animals especially for such experimentation would not only cost more than Utah can afford it would force a select few animals to spend their entire lives in kennels and laboratories Surely that is no more humane than experimenting on stray animals about to die anyway Animal experimentation is important to medical science and the University of Utah As long as it’s done humanely that research deserves the public’s support At this point that support must include affordable animals supplied by public agencies As university proprietors with a broad perspective of the state’s needs Utah legislators must ensure that the supe ply is sustained with existing pound-seizur- provisions itbaduckl Ruling May ‘Protect’ Women Unfairly Chicago Tribune Service Working women won a victory in the Supreme Court last week Or did they? Even the high court itself split on the large Just last week the US Supreme answer But despite different reasoning six Court endorsed job protection laws justices did agree that it is not illegal sex for pregnant employees Significant discrimination for states to pass laws requiremployers to reinstate female workers numbers of minorities are running for ing after maternity leave and winning public office In 1964 only The decision many feminists fear can 280 blacks held elective office in the open the way for more legislation that will United States By January 1985 the “protect” women right out of equal job opnumber had grown to 6056 portunities and back to eras past when women’s need for extra considerations The Rev Dr Martin Luther King was perceived excuse enough to keep them out of many Jr a Nobel Peace Prize winner who good jobs was assassinated in April 1968 at age The bitterly debated case began in 1982 39 accelerated this process He when Lillian Garland a receptionist at CaliFederal Savings and Loan Association pressed peacefully but persistently fornia Los in Angeles gave birth to a baby girl by for laws like the Voting Rights Act of Caesarean section Two months later she 1965 which banned literacy tests and tried to return to work But she was told her other laws preventing blacks from job had been filled and no other position was participating in elections and the Civ- available il Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits Without an income Garland was unable racial discrimination in employment to pay her apartment rent She was evicted federal assistance programs and vir- and for a while slept on the couch in the living room of a woman friend Because she tually all public accommodations had no place to live the baby’s father was Of course Dr King’s successful able to win custody of the baby marches were preceded by such When Garland finally turned to the Calistrides as the 14th Amendment guar- fornia Department of Fair Employment and Act of 1964 That law was passed to ensure that employers include pregnancy in disabil- Martin Luther King Legacy What better year than the 200th anniversary of the Constitution of the United States to simultaneously celebrate the birth of a man who insisted peacefully that constitutional principles apply to all American citizens regardless of race or gender Today the designated commemoration of Martin Luther King’s civil rights movement the nation cannot claim full success in extending constitutionally recognized prerogatives equally to its people : ' People like Rosa Parks can no longer be arrested for sitting at the front of the bus But many Americans by virtue of their minority status still suffer discrimination in employment housing social situations and sometimes the courtroom In many communities homosexuals cannot teach in public schools or expect privacy in their relationships Women are denied the opportunity to serve the nation in military combat Blacks and other minorities are not breaking into the market place in pro- portion to their numbers Fathers are often overlooked in child custody deci- sions Private clubs still shun people because of race and gender Increasingly however prejudicial barriers are being discarded by legislatures the courts and the public-at- - anteeing equal rights to all Americans and the 1955 Supreme Court order segregating public schools They were succeeded by the Fair Housing Act of 1968 and the development of affirmative actions programs designed to offBy Barbara T Roessner set past patterns of racial discriminaThe Hartford Courant tion But his campaign was an fitness in regard to parentimportant catalyst for making consti- hoodDetermining is no easy task but every day judges tutionally avowed freedoms a reality throughout the land are forced to perform it for all kinds of Americans Mothers and fathers driven by adversarial Rehire Controllers for Safety’s Sake 9 Aero-mexic- Housing for help the agency filed a complaint against the savings and loan association The savings and loan rallied California employers’ groups to help it challenge the law on grounds that it illegally discriminated against men and nonpregnant women who are not guaranteed their old jobs back after being absent for medical disability Those who supported the California law argued that special protections for women who are pregnant or have just had a baby are not unfair sex discrimination Instead they help reduce the biological handicaps women face because the demands of reproduction fall unequally on them Pregnancy-leav- e policies simply make it a little easier for women to manage childbearing and work proponents insisted Legally the case rested on whether the California law conflicted with the federal Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights ity insurance programs It requires that pregnant workers be treated the same as other employers with medical disability In answer to that legal question Justice Thurgood Marshall and five other justices decided the California law should be upheld Seven other states already have laws somewhat similar to California’s More than 100 other countries make some kind of legal provision to help working women through pregnancy and childbirth It’s difficult to separate the effects of such laws from all the other factors involved in the hiring and promoting of women but they do not seem to have had the bad effects many feminists fear Several other economic facts should help to minimize any adverse impact Women now make up about half of the nation’s work force and are essential in most businesses More than half of all college students 40 percent of law students 25 percent of medical students and increasing percentages of business and science majors are female Employers cannot afford to discriminate against women in hiring and promoting without cutting themselves off from essential employees Women should be able to claim the Supreme Court ruling as a victory Court’s Vital in Parenthood Decisions Another Viewpoint From The Baltimore Evening Sun A year ago travelers heaved a collective sigh of relief as 1985 the worst year in US aviation history receded into memory More than 2000 people died in crashes that year the cumulative horror brought by television into living rooms across the country prompted widespread anxiety over the safety of air transport Happily travelers this year can look back on just the opposite In 1986 US carriers c joyed one of their safest years in history with not a single fatal crash on the large scheduled airlines and the and medium-size- d lowest fatal accident rate for commiiter airlines on record But as Thursday's midair collision over a populated area of Utah indicates tnere have been disturbing trends as well t o In August a DC-- jet operated by collided with a small plane over Los the state law An employer who obeys the state law by providing such leaves only for' pregnancy would violate the federal law A logical remedy would be to strike down the I state law The logical remedy is not what the Su-- ( preme Court reached The majority opinion written by Justice Thurgood Marshall said the federal law didn’t ban discrimination in favor of pregnant women only against them To reach this verdict the court had to ign6ret the law’s command that they "be treated the same” as other disabled workers The court' decided that Congress didn’t mean what if said The dissenting justices led by Byrori White pointed out that the lawmakers who’ enacted the law disavowed any idea of fore- -' ing employers to provide disability programs for pregnant women or anyone elsei Congress’ intent is debatable but the law’s words are not The words should prevails i The California approach carries risks for women Some feminists like those at the National Organization for Women recognised as much and took Cal Fed’s side against Gar land By granting special benefits to pregnant women the state law contradicts fhe worthy goal of equality If pregnant women can be singled out by law for benefits why not for burdens? NOW may also understand that forcing companies to make unusual accommoda-tions for expectant mothers is not an unmixed blessing to women The California law raises the cost of hiring women of childbearing age thus encouraging employers to hire men or older women instead It helps women with jobs while making it harder for women to get jobs The feminist answer — require employers to offer parental leaves to men and women alike — doesn’t eliminate the problem If women are more likely than men to take leaves companies still will tend to prefer hiring men Still NOW deserves credit for acknowledging that the market can’t be ignored But imposing one policy on all firms and all workers is not the answer The government is better off letting this benefit like life insurance or vacation time vary according to different needs: Let firms weigh the cost of leaves against the need to attract workers and let employees balance the appeal of leaves against the lower pay it is likely to entail The federal government shouldn’t ban employers from offering only pregnancy leaves and California shouldn’t require employers to offer them That kind of freedom protects the interests of women who don’t have or want children as well as those who do Relying on legal compulsion is bound to penalize one at the expense of the other Historically when the government has insisted on treating women differently from men it has rarely been for their benefit They shouldn’t assume that the past is no prologue Angeles leaving 82 dead The tragedy highlighted the increasing peril of midair collisions in the congested airspace around the country’s largest airports — a situation exacerbated by the continuing shortage of fully qualified air traffic controllers since the controllers strike of 1981 The rise in narrowly averted midairs has been so dramatic that the Federal Aviation Administration quietly relaxed its definition of a near-mis- s in order to avoid alarming the public But juggling the numbers won’t make the skies safer The FAA insists it will not rehire any of the fired controllers But it has not come up with any plan to increase the number of qualified personnel or reduce to manageable proportions the workloads of those on duty With jumbo jets carrying 500 or more passengers each that is penny wise and pound foolish The danger of midairs will only grow worse as long as the shortage persists lawyers emotional vendettas and love vie for custody of their children The courts must make the most Solomonlike of decisions Who is the better parent? In December the New York state Supreme Court took an important step toward defining or redefining the answer to that difficult question What makes or breaks a good parent the court ruled is neither gender nor sexual orientation but the ability to fulfill the particular needs of a particular child In the first decision of its kind in New York the court awarded a homosexual fason ther custody of his The trial judge in the case rejected the mother's arguments that the father's lifestyle would be injurious to the son The judge decreed that the father despite the fact that he has lived with his homosexual lover for the past eight years was simply better able to provide the particular kind of parental care the child required "The court” Judge Morton I Willen wrote "finds no evidence of any present or potential harm upon which to make the father's homosexuality a consideration in this custody dispute” The record showed that the boy identified in court papers only as B has “fared far better with his father than with his mother” Willen said The ruling which is being appealed is certain to outrage those who consider homosexuality a contagious disease to be feared and expunged And I am sure it will rankle further an increasingly vocal group of feminists who believe the courts are displaying a new willingness to “rob” mothers of some inherent or exclusive right to nurture their offspring But it also is being hailed by groups as a blow against bigotry and a boost to their battle on a relatively new and critical front: the desire and ability of gay people to be parents “It's always groundbreaking when you have a decision like this especially in tosentiment It’s reday's climate of anti-gafreshing and important that the judge wasn't swayed by the prevailing bigotry but had the sense to look at the facts” says Urvashi Vaid spokeswoman for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force based in Washing- ton DC "These court cases are very important because they get peop'e thinking They get people to realize there isn’t one rubber-stam- p model that we should be replicating in every family There’s no preset mold for a traditional nuclear heterosexual family It’s just not like that in real life” That may be so but in many states the legislatures courts and foster care and adoption agencies continue to hew to an out gay-righ- ts y dated notion of what a “good” family or a “good” parent is In Massachusetts in 1985 for example the state placed two foster children in the home of a gay couple Cowed by public opposition the state removed the children and amended its official policy to make it virtually impossible for gay people to be foster parents Although a governor’s task force recommended in December that the amended policy be abolished it remains on the books And yet says Vaid a “mini-bab- y boom’’ is going on in the gay community Just as many heterosexual men and women are forming single-pare- fam- ilies so many homosexuals and lesbians are forming their own families “Gay feople like heterosexual people grew up ii family settings” Vaid says “We have parents just like everyone else We have the ame values of intimacy caring love support commitment to each other over tin and all those other things that families give you It’s only natural that we would ha e a desire to create families for ourselve? It’s part of our cultural training It’s part f a deep need” In the New York case there is no telling whether he judge gave the right answer to that diffii ult question: Who is the better parent? But n his wisdom the judge does seem to have 'jased his decision on the right grounds - - not gender onsexual orientation but the ability to meet the particular needs oi a particular child |
