Crimson Connections

But the initiative does not have a ringing endorsement from the medical community, and the Harvard faculty is far from unanimous as well.

Two affiliates of the Harvard School of Public Health, Lecturer Nancy M. Kane and Professor Nancy C. Turnbull, co-authored a study highlighting the health care cost increases if Question Five is passed.

"[Question Five's passage] may set everything back," says David S. Rosenthal '59, director of University Health Services (UHS). "For instance, this could have adverse effects on cancer research."

Because of potential price increase from outside specialists, Rosenthal says passage of Question Five could raise UHS premiums for students, even though the provisions of the initiative will not directly force changes at UHS.

He says the proposal would also nullify a patients bill of rights passed by the legislature this summer, one he says is superior to that proposed in the initiative.

But other members of the Harvard community have lined up as chief supporters of Question Five. The first signer of the petition to get Question Five on the ballot was Professor of Cardiology emeritus Bernard Lown. Another of the earliest and most prominent supporters was Warburg Professor of Economics emeritus John Kenneth Galbraith.