To the Editor:
I commend Richard Dooling for having the courage to utter the unspeakable truth: Despite our vast medical/technological hubris, we cannot cheat death, and shame on those who cling to the belief that we can. Shame also on the many readers who will inevitably excoriate Mr. Dooling for a perceived lack of compassion for the elderly, and the self-interested politicians who will foolishly accuse him of supporting “death panels.”
The fact is that old people eventually die; they are supposed to. Yet the medical establishment makes huge profits peddling the notion that the end of life can be delayed indefinitely. Economics aside, this is inhumane.
We must somehow conjure the common sense to allow people to die with dignity, without suffering, and at the reasonable time when their bodies give up even if their families refuse to do so.
Lisa Wesel
Bowdoinham, Me., Aug. 17, 2009
To the Editor:
After reading Richard Dooling’s Op-Ed article, I made my usual morning rounds on my patients. They are—almost to a person—exactly the kind of people who the author feels do not deserve the advanced health care that I am privileged to provide them.
It saddens me to know that my octogenarian—and yes, even nonagenarian—patients, who have paid a lifetime of taxes, fought for their country, live independently and often even still work—have raised the generation that now, increasingly, seems to feel that the surgeries I routinely perform that save lives and enhance their quality are wasteful expenses that our selfish society cannot afford.
Albert C. DiMeo
Fairfield, Conn., Aug. 18, 2009
The writer is a doctor and the director of minimally invasive cardiac surgery at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, Conn.
To the Editor:
As an ageless, 40-something woman who cares equally about people of all ages, I must object to Richard Dooling’s suggestion to cut “some of the money spent on exorbitant intensive-care medicine for dying, elderly people and redirect it to pediatricians and obstetricians offering preventive care for children and mothers.”
He may not be, as he states, “talking about euthanasia.” But his suggestion reflects the unloving philosophy of ageism that so many elderly encounter daily. Our elders have just as much right as any to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, as they see fit and to their very last breath, however and whenever that occurs.
Helena Babington Guiles
San Francisco, Aug. 17, 2009
To the Editor:
Richard Dooling writes that we are “incurring enormous debt to pay for bypass surgery and titanium-knee replacements for octogenarians and nonagenarians” and suggests that the money be spent elsewhere.
I will be 82 in several months and have had bypass surgery and a hip replacement. Any time Mr. Dooling would like, I will race him swimming, bicycling or kayaking. I would race him running also, but my orthopedist says I mustn’t run. I further suggest that Mr. Dooling bring along an oxygen tank and a well-fitting mask for his own post-race use.
Paul R. Packer
New Rochelle, N.Y., Aug. 17, 2009
The writer is a doctor.
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 