Candidates quizzed on faith, abortion

This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press October 11, 2000

By BOB WILSON
Valley Press Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Candidates for the Antelope Valley Hospital board of directors answered questions about their observance of religion before a Christian group that makes political endorsements.

In a year where Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Lieberman has called out for a place for the embrace of faith in public life, the activity of the Community Impact Committee should come as no surprise.

A Jew, a Muslim, a pair of Christian ministers and three Christian churchgoers appealed to the organization of Christian churches for support in their bids for seats on the board of Antelope Valley Hospital.

Candidates for the elected hospital district board fielded questions about their opinions on abortion, euthanasia, teen pregnancy and where and how often they worship.

Three of 10 candidates seeking three seats on the hospital's board of directors were absent from Monday's interview that was convened by the Community Impact Committee.

The committee is the political arm of the Antelope Valley Christian Ministerial Association. The ministerial association represents about 56 Christian congregations with thousands of members.

Approval by the committee can have impact on local election outcomes because the committee's findings and recommendations are in turn shared with thousands of churchgoers in a Valley that has an enormous faith-based community, with many members carrying their views from the church to the ballot box.

The association's recommendations on local political races also tend to be given weight by the area's best organized political interest organization, the conservative Antelope Valley Republican Assembly.

Candidates seek support

Absent from the group's interview were incumbent Deborah Rice, a nurse practitioner seeking her second term on the board; Gregory Bashem, a concrete-delivery driver seeking his first term in elected office; and Sandra Tulley, a retired airline mechanic also seeking her first term.

Those answering the group's questions in the hope of garnering its support were board incumbent Steve Fox and challengers Dr. Abdallah "Al" Farrukh, Dr. Richard Elton, Deanna Peugeot, Alan Wallace, and husband-and-wife candidates William and Diana Wheeler.

Whether any of the 10 will be endorsed by the group will be decided later this week, said James Majeske, senior pastor of the Lancaster First Assembly of God and president of the ministerial association.

Majeske was accompanied in posing questions to the candidates by the group's board chairman Cecil Swetland; board secretary Lisa Moulton; board member Joe Payne; and member representatives Chris Johnson, Larry Ali, Trevor Jones and Judy Davis.

Among the key questions posed was where and how often the candidates visited houses of worship.

Fox said his preferred Jewish temple is in the San Fernando Valley, which makes it difficult for him to attend services on a regular basis.

However, he "church-hops," attending the services of many local congregations in between worshiping at two local temples.

Farrukh said his profession keeps him from stopping to pray five times a day as prescribed by the faith, but when possible, he worships at the Muslim mosque in Palmdale.

"I attend our church in our home," Diana Wheeler said. "My husband is a minister; I also have credentials."

The couple conducts services that are attended frequently by troubled youths from their neighborhood, Wheeler said. "Praise the Lord; they're out of trouble now."

Wheeler's husband, William, said his wife's answer was his response as well.

Elton said he has attended weekly services at an Episcopal church in Lancaster for 21 years, except when he was out of town, and has been preparing to lead one of the congregation's Sunday School classes.

Peugeot said she attends services and Bible study each week at a Lutheran church in Lancaster, where she also serves on a social ministry committee and operates the church's Internet site.

Wallace claimed to attend no house of worship but noted that he often volunteers to help churches with their community events.

Abortion a concern

Another key question posed by the panel concerned the leadership, if any, the candidates would provide at the hospital in terms of abortion, euthanasia and teen pregnancy.

"I agree that every girl or lady that becomes pregnant should carry that child, whether it's through force or through persuasion," unless the baby is severely deformed or brain-damaged, Diana Wheeler told the panel.

But a mother's life "is the most important to me," and if that life is at risk, abortion should be an option, she said.

"I'm agin it," her husband, William, said succinctly. "God is the giver of life, and we don't have the right to take that life away from anyone."

"However, we don't have a right to condemn a mother to death if the fetus is causing serious problems with her," he added.

"It's a good idea to have the family make the decision" on whether to abort or not in such instances, he said.

"I personally don't favor abortion," Fox said.

He described a family situation in which a relative bore a child out of wedlock, which Fox said he supported as opposed to abortion.

"I can't think of a reason why" the baby should not have been delivered "and I can't think of anybody who would dare to say this beautiful little baby shouldn't be here," Fox said.

In instances where a mother's life is at risk, the decision on whether to abort a baby should be left up to the mother and her family, he said.

Nevertheless, as a public facility, the hospital is obliged to follow state and federal dictates, Fox said.

"I'm pro-life," Wallace said, though he cited rape and severe abnormalities as factors that should be considered.

"But other than that, I think people should own up to their responsibility," he said. "If they are going to go through the act (of procreation), they should deal with the consequences."

Teen pregnancy options

Teen pregnancy should be addressed through increased education, and euthanasia should be left up to the person involved and his or her family, Wallace said.

The best path for women of any age facing the birth of an unwanted child is adoption, according to Peugeot.

In light of the legalization of RU-486, the so-called abortion pill - no doctor, nurse or pharmacist should be forced to prescribe the drug if it is against their beliefs, Peugeot said.

"Should someone agree and believe in this, and should someone want it, I can't stop them. It's against the law for me to stop them," she said.

While she would not support euthanasia, she would support a person's choice to decline extraordinary measures to keep them alive, Peugeot said.

"Abortion is legal, and it is a private matter between the woman involved and her doctor," Elton said. "Euthanasia is not legal and I don't think it should be encouraged."

Teen pregnancies have resulted in the birth of many people who have grown up to become good citizens, he said. "Nevertheless, coital relations should not be engaged in by anyone of any age unless those persons are willing to want and care for a child should it be produced."

Swetland pursued the topic, asking Elton to clarify his answer.

"It's a given that abortion is legal," Swetland said. "What I was trying to get at is, in terms of a leadership role on the board, if questions come up about it ... what are your opinions about AV Hospital's policy toward abortion: What it should be; how it should be implemented?"

Touchy subject explored

"They should follow the legal guidelines because they are a (public) district hospital," Elton replied. "I don't want any woman who chooses abortion to feel she is any less valuable than a woman who chooses to go through an adoption. At the same time, I don't want any woman to conceive unless she wants the child.

"I don't want to sound like I'm sitting on a fence, because I'm not," he continued. "I don't want to go back to the days where abortion is illegal and young girls come in bleeding to death. Because they will have abortions by people with coat hangers who don't know anything about what they're doing.

"I don't want to go back to illegality for abortion," Elton said. "I do want to go to a place where we have as few (abortions) as possible."

According to Farrukh, "I feel that life is a gift from God, and only God should take it back."

No abortions have been performed at AV Hospital "for the past two years that I know of," he said. "There is a culture at AV Hospital among physicians that abortions are not done."

However, doctors sometimes face circumstances in which the lives of both the mother and fetus are at risk, Farrukh said. In those circumstances, any decision on aborting the fetus should be left to the mother and her family.

As for euthanasia, it is both illegal and unethical, he said. And marriage should be one of the options presented to young girls facing the decision of whether to abort or adopt.

Paul Allemeier, spokesman for AV Hospital, said a search of its computerized records showed no elective abortions had been performed at the medical facility since at least 1992.

No information from noncomputerized records for years before 1992 was available immediately, Allemeier said.

Many nurses on staff object to the practice and would revolt if forced to participate, he said.

Interest explained

Asked what spurred his interest in running for the board, Wallace, a NASA electronics technician and college student, said, "There are a couple of policies and items of concern I want to change to make the care for the patients in the community that much better."

Elton, who retired in May from his private practice as an orthopedic surgeon, said he was "asked last spring by a friend to run for office who thought I could do a good job."

"I thought hard about it and decided to run, and here I am," he said.

Farrukh, a neurosurgeon and the chief of medical staff at AV Hospital, said his goal was to "pay back the community through public service."

Peugeot, a computer software engineer, said her campaign was based on a concern that control over health care "is being taken away from patients and doctors and put instead in the hands of bureaucrats who are taking a look at individuals more in regards to numbers and money and not at the lives and the families that are involved in the situation."

Fox, a family law attorney seeking a fourth term on the panel, said he wanted to continue the operational changes initiated after the November 1998 election, when the voters finally gave him a majority of board members who agreed with him instead of disagreed.

Since then, the board has hired a new chief executive officer who has reduced administrative costs, increased staff salaries and put the facility on a sound financial path intended to improve medical care, Fox said.

Rules help or hinder

Diana Wheeler, a homemaker, said she was seeking election to the board "because I am one of AV Hospital's patients, time and time and time again, since the age of 1."

During that time, she has seen some patients get better care from doctors than other patients and nurses who could not provide the care needed because their hands were tied by rules and regulations, Wheeler said.

Wheeler's husband, an aerospace cost analyst and a union auditor, said he was running "to stop any unwarranted expenses" being paid by hospital administrators.

"I have the ability to spot patterns in work" and identify redundant tasks that waste hospital money, he said. "If it's done right the first time, it doesn't have to be done the second time."