FROM NUNS TO DONS

THE Vatican tied the hands of the Sisters of Charity. No-one is likely to
stand in the way of the University of NSW, though some, like the Leader of
the State Opposition, Mrs Chikarovski, seem intent on trying.

The university council's unanimous decision to offer to support "the
18-month trial of a medically supervised injection service" which the nuns
had been forced to abandon is a powerful statement.

The Chancellor, Dr John Yu, sits on the council, whose 21 members include
the professor of pharmocology Dr John Carmody, as well as the professor of
medicine at St Vincent's Hospital, Professor Ron Penny, and Professor Wayne
Hall and Dr Kate Dolan of the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.

The State Government should proceed with the special legislation necessary
to enable the trial to go ahead under new auspices.

There is not the least doubt that the university meets all the requirements
for the task. Like the Sisters of Charity, it is a respected and
responsible body able to call on necessary medical expertise.

Indeed, although it is hardly surprising, there is a degree of overlap in
the two, through St Vincent's Hospital, for example. The auspices might
change, but the trial will be in much the same good hands.

It is not surprising that the university already faces objections,
including some similar to those raised by conservative elements in the
Catholic Church to the original proposal involving the Sisters of Charity.
Mrs Chikarovski says she finds it "extraordinary that the University of NSW
has become involved". She questions the university's "priorities" and said
it should think of using its limited funds more appropriately. She has also
said the university was the wrong place for the proposed trial. "This
shooting gallery is sending out the wrong message to young people ... Why
would you have an organisation which is involved with young people being
part of sending out that message?"

This is muddled thinking.

Mrs Chikarovski raises fears about spending priorities and "the wrong
message to young people". She is less keen to state clearly whether she
thinks the worst-case heroin addicts, those who are most likely to die
because of the depths to which they have sunk, are worth saving or being
given at least a chance of survival through being enabled to inject in
clean, medically supervised surroundings and, where possible, directed into
rehabilitation programs.

If they are worth saving, the question is who is best equipped to try to do it.

The same muddled thinking led the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith in Rome into error.

It was unsettled by bad arguments which coalesced into a faulty moral
judgment, elevating a concern for the corporate image of the Catholic
Church over the real ministry of its most devoted and effective members.
The letter from the Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal Clancy, to the Sisters
of Charity which effectively directed the nuns to pull out, spoke of the
Vatican's concern that the nuns' involvement had "deeply disturbed the
faithful".

As Cardinal Clancy has said, the question of "co-operation in wrongdoing"
is difficult and complex.

It points to the need for strict controls on the proposed trial.

It underlines the utmost importance of seeing that the trial is not abused
and that it includes not just "service" but also serious and well-directed
emphasis on rehabilitation. But the moral conundrum of "co-operation in
wrong-doing" should never mean the moral cowardice of abandoning the
worst-case addicts to their fate. The University of NSW has made a morally
sound and courageous decision and should stick to it.