Living and Dying With MS

While I admire the tenacity, energy, optimism and endurance of people like Geri Esten (Remembrance, March 9), I object to your unrealistic and simplistic solutions for people with painful and debilitating diseases like multiple sclerosis. You make the assumption that there are no variables, that nothing should go into the equation but the fact that they have MS and should be role models for living brave and strong lives.

What if the woman in Michigan had a low tolerance for pain or no close family and friends. Perhaps she had little or no income. There are so many possibilities. The fact is, [Jack] Kevorkian did not carry the message that living with MS is worth than death. He simply empathetically carried out the wishes of an MS patient who believed that the time had come for her life to be terminated.

ELISE ASCH

Manhattan Beach

I met Geri in 1978. Geri was my supervisor when I became a paraprofessional counselor at the Southern California Counseling Center. She later became my personal therapist during a difficult period in my life. Her impression on me was enormous. Aside from being caring, productive, vital and beautiful, the best I could say about Geri was that I would forget she had MS. I think she would have liked that.

PHYLLIS KATZMAN TOLEDANO

Valley Village