[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 155 (Friday, November 7, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H10324]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    ON THE USE OF THE DRUG MYOTROPHIN FOR SUFFERERS OF LOU GEHRIG'S 
         DISEASE, AND A CAUTIONARY NOTE ON USE OF THE INTERNET

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Tennessee [Mr. Duncan] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, sometime in the next couple of weeks, the 
Food and Drug Administration has told my office that it will make a 
decision about the drug called myotrophin. This is the only drug 
currently available that gives some hope to the victims in the advanced 
stages of the deadly illness we all know as Lou Gehrig's disease.
  As almost everyone knows, this is a horrible nerve disorder that 
slowly robs victims of their ability to walk, talk, move freely, and 
eventually even to eat, swallow, and breathe on their own. There is no 
cure. The disease has always been fatal. But now, finally, there is a 
drug, myotrophin, that gives victims of Lou Gehrig's disease some small 
sliver of hope.
  Unfortunately, this drug has not been approved by the Food and Drug 
Administration. There is no question that this drug is absolutely safe, 
but the FDA questions if it actually improves quality of life.
  The patients and doctors who have worked in the experimental trials 
are convinced it does improve and extend the lives of these victims. 
Demonstrating that improvement to an absolute mathematical statistical 
certainty is going to be a very long, arduous task. Thousands of people 
will be robbed of their only hope in the meantime.
  An advisory committee of the FDA voted to reject final approval of 
the drug until more evidence is gathered. Sometime in the next couple 
of weeks the FDA will make the final decision on whether these 
sufferers will be allowed to use this drug.
  The drug is safe, Mr. Speaker. There is some disagreement about its 
effectiveness, but many doctors and patients believe in myotrophin and 
want to use it. They should be allowed to do so. The FDA should not 
play God. They should not take away the last hope these people have. If 
this is still a free country, these victims of Lou Gehrig's disease 
should be allowed to use this drug if they and their doctors feel that 
they should.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to move to an unrelated but also very important 
subject. Last week, last Friday, on the ABC program ``20/20,'' Barbara 
Walters helped present what she described as the most important hour 
ever shown on national television. This was a program attempting to 
alert parents to the horrible, sick, warped things that millions of 
children are being exposed to on the Internet. There are all types of 
pornography which cannot be totally effectively blocked, and, even 
worse, sexual predators preying on children over the Internet.
  I know that for some reason there are some people who worship 
computers today and are greatly offended if anyone even implies that 
anyone or anything should restrict their use in even the slightest way. 
I also know that computers do wonderful and miraculous things and have 
greatly enhanced our quality of life. But I also know there is a down 
side to becoming totally, completely dependent on and controlled by 
computers and the Internet. We started out controlling the computers, 
and now they seemingly control us.
  Mr. Speaker, I simply happen to believe that we should worship God, 
not Bill Gates. We have allowed far too much power to be concentrated 
in the hands of one man and one company, so I applaud the Justice 
Department for taking on Mr. Gates and Microsoft, although probably the 
government will lose in the end.
  I heard on the national news a few months ago that the Massachusetts 
Division of Motor Vehicles was going totally online and hoped that they 
didn't have to see a live customer 10 years from now.
  I heard a leading Washington sports columnist on the radio a few days 
ago say that when people called him to get his e-mail address and found 
out they were talking to him in person, they frequently, quickly hung 
up.
  The Washington Post this week had a story about how the Internet was 
drawing some families closer together, because college students would 
have conversations over their computers that they would never have in 
person.
  I read an article recently by a Harvard professor who said, we are 
allowing the electronic media to isolate us from each other, and that 
membership in all sorts of organizations, good organizations, is 
rapidly declining.
  We worried about our children spending too many hours in front of 
television screens, so now we have placed them in front of computer 
screens that oftentimes have things on them far worse than what is on 
television.
  With each passing year we seem to be talking less and less with each 
other. People do not know their next-door neighbors. They tell us that 
more and more people are working out of their homes. We are spending 
less and less time with our fellow live human beings, and more and more 
time in front of television and computer screens.
  I sometimes wonder how much human contact there will be 50 or 100 
years from now. On the 20/20 program they reported about the 11-year-
old boy in New Hampshire who was murdered while selling door to door 
for his school. He was killed by a 15-year-old boy whose mind was 
warped and filled with rage after a homosexual relationship with an 
adult he met over the Internet.
  And then we have the year 2000 problem which Newsweek said is going 
to cost us $1 trillion in litigations and software costs and other 
expenses simply because these computers cannot realize that we will 
change from 1999 to the year 2000.
  This is crazy. It will cause everything to cost more.
  I am not saying that we should do away with computers. I know that 
frequently, when someone disagrees, they resort to childish sarcasm 
because that is easier and simpler than arguing on the merits.
  I know that some will be sarcastic about what I have said tonight.
  Again, Mr. Speaker, I am not saying, throw out our computers, but I 
am saying, do not get addicted to them, either. Do not go crazy over 
them. Do not let them get out of control and destroy the lives of 
innocent children. Be alert that there are dangers, and spend less time 
in front of screens and more time talking to and helping each other.

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