1963

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — APPENDIX A4793

Medicine and Modern Democracy

 

EXTENSION OF REMARKS

OF

HON. WILLIAM J. GREEN, JR.

or PENNSYLVANIA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, July 25, 1963

Mr. GREEN of Pennsylvania. Mr.
Speaker, the Honorable Jonn E. Foc-
A4704

arty, the distinguished Member of this
House from the State of Rhode Island,
has devoted a great measure of his time
and effort in the advancement of medi-
cine and allied sciences in our advanced
schools of learning.

It was through his individual efforts,
although he is not prone to admit it, that
appropriations have been made avail-
able for financial aid to students aspir-
ing to these professions. His efforts
have been recognized by Members. of
Congress and the medical faculties and
by the public press, which on many oc-
casions commended his untiring work to
promote the health and welfare of the
people of this great Nation.

Congressman Focarty’s.recent address
on June il at the commencement exer-
cises of Women’s Medical College of
Pennsylvania, a renowned institution of
medical learning, summarizes his ex-
panded knowledge on the subject of the
urgent needs and the requirements to
meet such needs in this. dedicated pro-~
fessional field. It is well that his dis-
course on the subject of urgent medical
needs in these United States be forcibly
brought te the attention of our people
through every media possible.

Mr. Speaker, for this reason I insert
in the Recorp a copy of the text of Con-
gressman Focarty’s address to the fac-
ulty, students, and others who attended
the commencement exercises at
Women’s Medical College of Pennsyl-
vania, and who were fortunate to hear
directly from a recognized authority
on this subject. which will have such a
vital impact on this and future genera-
tions in this country: -

MEDICINE AND MODERN DEMOCRACY
(Commencement address by Hon. Joun E.
Focarty)

President Fay, honored guests, members
of the faculty, members of the 111th class
to graduate from the Woman’s Medical
College of Pennsylvania, and their families
and friends, it is an inspiring experience to
be present as this group of outstanding
young women is about to take its place in
the noble company of those who have entered
the profession of medicine from this great
college in an unbroken procession of gradu-
ates since the year 1851.

And it is with.a feeling of genuine hu-
mility and appreciation that I receive the
honor you have bestowed upon me today.
It has been my privilege. to serve for the
past 16 years either as chairman or ranking
member of the House Appropriations Com-
mittee which deals with the health sciences.
I have come to know and to appreciate the
work of physicians in a way which is not
granted to many men,. And I have consid-
ered it my food fortune that I have been
able to do my part in assuring proper levels
of Federal support in cooperation with State,
local, and private institutions for the ad~-
vancement of medical education and re-
search. Consequently, T am well aware of
the greatness and excellence of the Woman’s
Medical College, from which 2,664 women
doctors have been graduated to help make
the place and role of women in medicine
what it is today.

In the year 1963 it-can be said that the
struggle to gain for women their righful
place of recognition in medicine has indeed
been. won. It has been written that “The
measure of man’s cooperation with man in
the conquest of nature is the true measure
of progress.” In modern medicine progress
is being measured by the constant coopera-

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — APPENDIX

tion of men and women physicians in both
research and practice. And I have no doubt
‘whatever but that the members of this grad-
uating class will play their part to the fullest
extent in pushing the frontiers of medical
progress even. further forward.

As their role will be important to their
noble profession, so it will be equally im-
portant to their country in the great struggie
of our times to preserve world peace and
advance the cause of Hberty and democ-
racy in the face of the threats and dangers
which confront us.

The work of doctors and medical research«
ers everywhere in the world is a mighty
force for peace and freedom. As one who

-has long been identified with the U.S. par-

ticipation in the work of the World
Health Organization, I have been -very
much impressed with this. fact. Wars

and dictatorships are bred in poverty and
disease. Those who help to eradicate
malaria, those who labor to develop com-
munity water supply programs, those who
promote international cooperation in fight=

ing the great plagues of mankind—are all

helping to create world conditions that will
be favorable to the growth. of free societies
and @ more secure peace.

When, in 1960, Congress passed the Inter-
national Health Research Act, that measure
was primarily intended to help support med-
ical research by foreign scientists whenever
and wherever it is evident that their work
will advance the heaith status of the United
States, as well as that of the country in
which the research is conducted. It was
my privilege to introduce that legislation in
the House, and I have been gratified not
only by its scientific aspects but also by the
way in which it has brought about projects
of international cooperation that have sur-
vived a number of periods of grave inter-
national tension.

In the World Health Organization today,
American doctors and medical research
scientists. are actively engaged in helping
to disseminate research information. They
are seeking for more effective ways to sur-
mount language barriers so that the. ex-
plosion in medical literature, which is quite
a problem even here at home, can be han-
dled more efficiently for the mutual benefit
of physicians and other workers in the
health sciences. I am confident that as
their work progresses, it will serve not only
to improve the world’s health, but also to
prevent the spread of the disease of war.

Here at home, we must. also realize the
essential part which medicine and all the
branches of medical research play in keep~
ing America strong and free. In adding
up our country’s’ resources for national
strength, the health sciences must be. given
a leading place. Medicine ministers directly
to human beings and human beings continue
to be the most valuable, the most remark-
able, and the most significant creatures on
this planet. In an age of machines and
advanced technology man is not becoming
obsolete. The recent. wonderful perform-
ance of Gordon Cooper in bringing his space
vehicle back to earth under manual controls
is dramatic evidence that the human factor
still counts for a good deal, even in such
a highly technical field as that of space
flight. ‘

As man moves out into space a whole new
branch, of medical study will move with him.
And we can be sure that the work of free
doctors in a free society will have an ever-
increasing. importance for the winning of
those victories for democracy which will be
gained.-by our astronauts of the future—
among whom there will in time be numbered.
a good.many physicians. It is in fact quite
likely that one or more of today’s graduates
may have the distinction of being a woman
pioneer in this field as Dr. Ann Preston once
pioneered in the field of winning recognition
for women in medicine itself.

But. if American medicine is to play its

July 25

full and proper part in the life of our modern
democracy, we must solve two problems
which will not yield to pure laboratory re-
search. First we must greatly increase. the
number of qualified physicians and other
professionals in the health sciences, Then
we must also work out more equitable ways
of bringing the wonders of modern medicine
to all of our people—regardless of their race,
age, creed, or economic situation. And we
must do both of these things without. in
any way interfering with the traditionally
free and private character of the practice of
the. science and art of the physician. .

Earlier this year, a nationally distributed
Sunday magazine carried an article by Dr.
Pay in which she convincingly discussed the
gravity of the increasing shortage of phy-
sicians. The plain fact is that just to main-
tain the present ratio of physicians to popu-
lation will require, over the next 10 years,
a 50-percent increase in the number of
graduates from our medical schools. And
that is a minimal figure for the protection
of the health of the people.

Where are we going to find the money
to build and operate the equivalent of 20
new medical schools which will be needed?
I see no practical answer to that question
which does not include extensive Federal aid.
As Dr. Howard Rusk has put it, “After 10
years of frustration, delay, and ‘defeat, it
now appears likely that Congress will at last
enact = program of Federal aid to medical
education.”

Dr. Rusk was, of course, referring to the
bill known as H.R, 12—-the Health Profes-~
sions Educational Assistance Act of 1963-—
which the House passed on April 12 and sent
to the Senate.. This legislation is a step
forward. because it. does provide for a 3-
year, $175 million program of matching
grants for the construction of teaching fa-
cilities for medical, dental, and other health
personnel, and for a 3-year, $30 million pro- |
gram of loans for students of medicine and
allied sciences.

I am, of course, disappointed about the
omission of @ scholarship program in this
bill. I believe that a significant proportion
of those who have the potential to become
physicians are not doing so because they
simply cannot afford the expense of medical
school education. These people are handi-
capped—not by lack of brains, but by lack
of funds. The present student loan program
offers up to $2,000 a year to the student at
a reasonable rate of interest and is, in. a
measure, going to offset. the economic handi-
cap, but I still believe a scholarship pro-
egram—not requiring repayment—would have
been better.

Iam also disappointed at the sacrifice of a
provision which would have forgiven @ por-
tion of the student repayment in those in<
stances where young doctors set up practice
and remained in areas of severe physician.
shortages—but this sacrifice was not too high
a price to pay for the passage of a measure
so long delayed and so desperately needed. °
The measure now goes to the Senate, where
it. is hoped and believed that a friendly re~-
ception awaits it. This is particularly grati-
fying to me and to some of my colleagues,
who have tried so often and failed in the face
of a situation which has continued to de-
teriorate while our colleagues continued to
deliberate. I believe that we have a break-~
through, at last.

With medicine, as with other sciences, we
have not yet developed all the social and
political techniques which will enable the
whole country to benefit from the rapid ad-
vance of research. Through grants adminis-
tered by the National Institutes of Health
we have expanded the freedom of medical
research to undertake projects that could
not have been possible 10 or 15 years ago.
Now we must also develop forms of national
health insurance which will widen the free-
dom of the American people to make use of
the benefits of medical knowledge.
1963 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — APPENDIX . A4TO5

You who graduate today will have the high
privilege and the grave responsibility of one
of our most honored professions.. As you ex-
ercise that privilege and undertake that re-
sponsibility with a full awareness of your
equally important role as women and citi-
gens, you will make your lasting contribu-
tion to the interdependent causes. of the
health, the peace, and the freedom of man-
Kind.

RETA