While the writer is spot on in her views on the right to a dignified exit (“Open Page”, May 17), it is inappropriate to lay the blame for “treating patients and spending money unnecessarily” at the medical fraternity’s door. The family, in concurrence with the patient’s wish, must decide how far treatment must be offered. Situations where doctors are forced to offer high-end treatment for nonagenarians with disseminated cancers and even brain-dead youth are a dime a dozen. They are forced by families to “go all out and not to consider the money factor at all”. Doctors, being human too, cannot be called upon to pull the plug one fine morning. It is painful for them too. It is time the government and the public debated how far medical treatment must be offered in specific situations, in the light of prohibitively expensive modern medicine and its modalities, especially intensive care.
Dr. George Jacob,
Kochi
