Sentence of death
Sir: I nearly %Tote to you about Leslie Adrian's article under this somewhat emotive title, and the pathetic nonsense from an anonymous corres- pondent in this week's 'letters' provokes me to do so now.
Mr Adrian's unfortunate friend was 'strongly suspected of having secondary cancer' when she went into hospital, so it cannot have been such a sudden shock for her husband to have this con- firmed. ft is ricer that sea died sooner than had been expected and the remaining complaints were directly due to this. ft is notoriously difficult to forecast the length of survival, and this can rarely be more than a shrewd guess. Mr Adrian has to accept, along .with the rest of us. that 'death, a necessary end. will come when it will come.'
The other implied criticism was that doctors are reluctant to tell patients the truth when earls death is inevitable. Most people say that they would prefer to know. I think I would myself. but I wonder if perhaps when the time comes I would net after all prefer to carry on in ignorant hope- fulness. Hope is a great cuaainer, and must not be lightly destroyed.
it is not ao easy decision to take. and should, sure*, be taken only with the consent of the
nearest relative, or whoever will be caring for the patient. Yet in my experience the reaction of ninety- nine such relatives out of a hundred is to withhold the troth from the patient at all costs; and in the rare case of the relative who thinks the ;patient should be told, what on earth is there to prevent his doing so himself?
That there are lapses in human kindness in our hospitals cannot be denied; but I know, and you know, that these are the exception. Your anony- mous correspondent's malicious letter is an insult to the thousands of devoted nurses and doctors in the hospital service. Your printing of it lowers the standard of your once respected journal to the level of the 'gutter press'; and gives the 'sentence of death' to the subscription of a reader of twenty-five years' standing.
66 Queen's Road, Coventry T. H. Berrill
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