Senate Confirms David Satcher as Surgeon General

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On February 10, the Senate blocked Sen. John Ashcroft's (R.-Mo.) filibuster of the nomination of Dr. David Satcher to be U.S. surgeon general. Satcher supporters ended debate by invoking cloture, 75 to 23. and proceeded to a vote, in which he was confirmed, 63 to 35. Opponents of Satcher, led by Ashcroft, objected to, among other things, his advocacy of partial-birth abortion.

Another major issue of contention surrounding Satcher's nomination concerned his experiments on AIDS-infected pregnant women in Africa. Instead of giving his subjects the AZT drug, which has proven effective in fighting the virus, Satcher gave the women sugar pills, a practice that the New England Journal …