June 8, 1995 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — Extensions of Remarks E 1181

TRIBUTE TO MARK BISCOE

HON. MARTIN T. MEEHAN OF MASSACHUSETTS

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Wednesday, June 7, 1995

Mr. MEEHAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to

pay tribute to an outstanding educator, Mr.

Mark Biscoe.

For 36 years, Mr. Biscoe was a member of

the Fenn School family. He dedicated life to

teaching, coaching, and guiding young students at this small school for boys in Concord,

MA.

Mr. Biscoe began his distinguished career in

1958. Throughout his career, he has assisted

countless numbers of students. Each of his

students has been a recipient of his sincere

kindness, care, and responsible guidance. His

supervision and instruction have been significant factors in shaping Fenn boys into young

men and preparing them for the future.

In his role as teacher, coach, and sometimes parent, Mr. Biscoe has provided emotional as well as educational support. He has

made many invaluable contributions to the

Fenn community. Unfortunately, our society

often takes its teachers for granted. But, when

we consider the positive effects a teacher can

have on the lives of children, we begin to appreciate the value of the profession.

Mr. Biscoe’s commitment is a lesson about

teaching through example. He dedicated himself to improving his community and he succeeded. He is held in the highest esteem by

all who know him. I know many parents, students, and colleagues are grateful to Mark

Biscoe for his contributions. I extend my congratulations and best wishes to him on his retirement. I know that the Fenn School will continue to benefit from Mr. Biscoe’s involvement

and contributions.

HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN CHINA:

MILLIONS SUFFER WHILE THE

fGOVERNMENT IS REWARDED BY

THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION

HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Wednesday, June 7, 1995

Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, two

significant events marking the tragic human

rights record of the People’s Republic of China

must not be allowed to pass without this body

pausing to remember the victims in China who

are not allowed to speak out for themselves

without fear of persecution, imprisonment, torture, and death. There are even those victims

who will never have the opportunity to cry out

for their lives.

On June 1, the Maternal and Infantile Health

Care Law went into effect in the People’s Republic of China. This law, though titled a

‘‘health care’’ policy, is nothing short of Nazistyle eugenics policy added to an already oppressive, nonvoluntary, coercive one-child-percouple family planning policy being implemented in China.

China’s coercive population control policy is

already well known and is a crime against

women. Xiaorong Li, the vice-chair of Human

Rights in China’s Executive Committee and a

research fellow at the Institute of Philosophy

and Public Policy at the University of Maryland

recently wrote: ‘‘In assessing the population

policy, the unfair burdens that women have

been made to bear in recent history for mistaken national policies must not be

ignored * * * If China faces a population crisis, is it just to make women (and children)

primarily bear the cost of reducing birth

rates?’’ She goes on to note that ‘‘75 percent

of urban women would like to have two children, but most settled for having one child to

avoid losing subsidies, housing, medical care,

retirement benefits, and even their jobs. Rural

women seem to suffer more from pressures of

all kinds * * * to evade the quotas set by the

policy and produce more, preferably male, babies. They alone have to endure abortions in

the 7th and 8th months of pregnancy, use

IUD’s, take the pill, get sterilized, bear the children, and suffer the health consequences of

all these things. In most cases, they alone are

punished for their extra-quota births, having to

escape the harassment of family planning

workers, lying about their pregnancies, and

eluding the teams sent to take them for abortions and sterilizations.’’

The new law goes even further than setting

quotas, it is aimed at ensuring that parents

can have a perfect child, according to Sun

Nianfu, senior obstetrician at Beijing’s Capital

Hospital. To this end, the law prohibits marriage between people if one of them has a serious hereditary disease, which is medically

deemed unsuitable for reproduction unless the

couple would agree to take long lasting contraceptive measures or give up childbearing by

undergoing tubal ligation. Further, the law indicates that when a woman is determined to be

carrying a child that may have serious hereditary diseases or have a serious deformity, the

pregnancy should be terminated.

What will this mean for the people of China?

According to one report ‘‘couples discovered

to have a genetic predisposition toward conditions like diabetes, mild retardation, or even

rheumatoid arthritis * * * could be forced by

the government’s medical establishment to

abort their child.’’ The law, so vague in its definition of serious diseases would allow the government and medical officials to determine in

each case which people may get married,

which couples may have children, which children may be born.

Three days after the eugenics law went into

effect, on June 4, the world remembered the

brave men and women who filled Tiananmen

Square 6 years ago calling for democratic reform and greater freedoms. Tragically, that

peaceful protest, watched by millions the world

over, turned violent when the government ordered military troops into Tiananmen Square

and opened fire on peaceful, unarmed citizens.

Hundreds were killed. The Chinese Government has never given an accounting of the

exact number. More were rounded up and imprisoned. Many of these peaceful protesters

remain in Chinese prison, many of them are

imprisoned in labor camps, where they are

forced to participate in China’s slave labor

system, producing items exported to the United States under the administration’s tragic

trade policy which sacrifices human lives and

dignity on the altar of the dollar. On Friday the

President once again renewed MFN with

China, while paying lip service to the human

rights situation in China. While unborn children

are being called undesirable, while women are

forced to undergo coerced abortions and sterilizations, while hundreds of political dissidents

are imprisoned and their voices silenced, the

government which inflicts there horrors on the

people is rewarded.

Mr. Speaker, fortunately there are others

who have more integrity. And these people

are paying a high price for standing up for

human rights. Several appeals, signed by dozens of China’s leading intellectuals have been

issued calling for a commemoration of the

Tiananmen Square victims and the release of

those who are still detained for their participation in the peaceful protests. Some of those

who have signed the petitions have been arrested, including Wang Dan, the 26-year-old

former student leader at Tiananmen Square.

Others arrested include Wang Xizhe who was

imprisoned for 12 years for his participation in

the 1978 Democracy Wall movement, Liu

Xiaobo, a professor, Huang Xiang, a poet, and

Liu Nianchun.

And, Mr. Speaker, we must not forget that

Wei Jingsheng, the father of China’s democracy movement was detained on April 1, 1994

and has vanished without a trace. He had already spent over 14 years in prison. He was

released in September 1993 during China’s

bid to host the Olympics in the year 2000.

Once this no longer served their purpose, Wei

was picked up by authorities and has not been

heard from since. At this point he has not

been charged with any crime nor have there

been any judicial proceedings against him.

Mr. Speaker, today the government of China

enjoys most-favored-nation trade status with

the United States. Government officials and

the military are reaping the rewards of unlimited trade with our Nation while at the same

time they trample the rights, dignity, and lives

of millions of women and men in the name of

population control and stability.

These victims of China’s human rights

abuses must not be forgotten. Today I honor

the forgotten women and men of China, who

are victims of Nazi-like eugenic policies, who

cannot choose the number and spacing of

their children, whose bodies are violated,

whose voices are silenced, but whose hopes

and dreams remain alive.

BROWN INTRODUCES PATIENT

CHOICE LEGISLATION

f

HON. SHERROD BROWN OF OHIO

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Wednesday, June 7, 1995

Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker. I rise on

behalf of myself and my colleague, Mr.

LATOURETTE, to introduce legislation to ensure

patient choice of medical equipment under

Medicare.

Under current law, the Medicare Program

will reimburse beneficiaries for durable medical equipment only if they choose the basic

model. Those beneficiaries who wish to

choose an upgraded piece of equipment for

convenience or comfort reasons must pay for

the equipment themselves. In fact, some

beneficiaries are forced to use the basic

model of equipment even if it may make their

condition worse because they cannot afford to

pay the full amount for an upgraded model.

I do not believe that Medicare should not be

dictating choices to elderly beneficiaries, If an