Doctors Refusing to Treat Patients

The article by Restak should not go unanswered. I cannot understand who would refuse to treat a patient simply because the nature of the patient’s illness causes him to harbor “negative feelings.”

Nobody promised us an unending stream of attractive patients with pleasant diseases when we went to medical school. We learned early on to take the good with the bad, and if we were frightened or frustrated, which was often the case, we were expected to rise above it, or else choose another line of work.

I am sorry the author has such delicate sensitivities, and I am embarrassed for my profession that the article was published. Please be assured that his attitude is not the norm.

ROBERT R. GOYETTE, MD

Rolling Hills Estates