KEVORKIAN’S ADVOCATE

Sheryl James’ piece on Geoffrey Fieger (“What’s It Like Being Doctor Death’s Lawyer?” Nov. 10 ) limns a picture of a man concerned not with the acquisition of wealth and notoriety but with the right of the individual, with the aid of a doctor, to alleviate human suffering.

I’m convinced that his pugnacious, bellicose remarks about various judges and members of the clergy are not the product of boorishness or irreverence but that of indignation at any person or institution that doesn’t recognize an individual’s right to choose the means by which his or her profound suffering is to be ended, including physician-assisted suicide.

Fieger himself said it best: “. . . when death is sure, agony is real . . . you have an absolute, fundamental right to make a decision without the police kicking in your door. Let the patient’s last act on Earth . . . never be a crime. Ever.”

Mick Rennips

West Hollywood

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I find it disturbing that of the 44 patients Jack Kevorkian has “assisted,” most have been women. When women are no longer of service to others, are they disposable? I’ve worked in hospitals for a number of years and noticed that when men become terminally ill, they are usually cared for by a wife or daughter. But most terminal female patients spend far more time alone than do their male counterparts. I wonder if Kevorkian would still be a free man if his list of assisted suicides was predominantly male.

Rebecca Kessel

Los Angeles

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Why use that headline “For the Defense of Doctor Death”? The last line of the article says Kevorkian was not convicted of any charges. He is not Dr. Death. He may even be a saint, for all we know.

Joseph N. Feinstein

Sherman Oaks

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As the adoptive mother of three bright children, I am appalled that Fieger could actually be so ill-informed about why children are available for adoption in the first place. His statement “I don’t think that real bright white Americans are putting children up for adoption” is not only ignorant but racist as well--and just plain cruel.

Birth families decide with much forethought to put their babies up for adoption so that these children can have a chance at a better life than the birth parents are able to provide for them.

Perhaps Fieger should remain childless, since he seems to have no idea what “assisted living,” also known as parenting, is all about. For an attorney who claims to be very savvy about the world we live in, he doesn’t seem smart when it comes to matters of the heart.

Maxine M. Macha

Costa Mesa

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Kevorkian serves to thwart the use of the terminally ill for bloated insurance and Medicare reimbursements. If the flood of cancerous and elderly patients was staunched, HMO profits would shrivel. Upon whom then would new interns and nurses practice without fear of malpractice liability?

The last year of your life will be agony. You will be a bloody, twitching prisoner of ferocious equipment and ravenous health-care providers. You will be vivisected into money. Sacrifices, sacrifices, mankind is making sacrifices. Let no acolyte of Aesculapius bar Mammon’s passionate embrace.

Alan Schwartz

uncleal0@ix.netcom.com

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I think Fieger and comedian Martin Short were separated at birth.

Jeannie Cromie

Meiners Oaks, Calif.

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The devil has “picked” his heir.

Jane Snook

Van Nuys