Doctors and Plumbers

In equating plumbing and medical care, Jonathan Rosman (“A Doctor Has a Right to His Own Life,” Voices, Oct. 30) misses the difference between private and public services. Just as no individual has a right to demand that another repair his plumbing, so no individual has a right to demand that another individual bear arms for him, protect his property for him or teach his children--but we as a society have decided to provide national defense for all of us, police and fire protection for all of us, access to education for all our children.

And despite the fact that society provides such public services, no one suggests that we are not free to employ private security companies as a supplement to public police protection and send our children to private schools instead of to public schools--and no one suggests that private security companies are not free to set their own rates and private schools are not free to set their own tuition.

I do not believe that Rosman should be required to provide medical services to me, but I do believe that our society should provide basic health care for all its members, no less than it provides many other public services. Health care is no more a “right” than public schools but no less.

WILLIAM R. ZAME

Professor

UCLA Department of Economics

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Rosman has it, at best, only half right. There are many points he made with which I disagree. I’ll let those pass. But there is one point in which I am sure he is in a very small minority. We doctors are not like everyone else. I am certain the overwhelming majority of us believe we do have a calling. That is why we became physicians. We are responsible to others. We chose to be doctors, and when we made that choice we elected to remember we are dedicated to help others.

I have practiced for 48 years. In that time only a handful of patients ever took advantage of me. I never went broke taking care of needy and welfare patients. For most of us, HMOs or not, the Hippocratic oath is still our guideline.

ROBERT S. ELLISON MD

Arcadia

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To compare the human body to plumbing is quite disconcerting. A doctor is more like a priest than a plumber. If life is a gift from God, then losing a life for the want of an antibiotic is not right. I wish Rosman would take his self-serving ideas and go back to South Africa.

ANTOINETTE LAURA

Rancho Palos Verdes

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It’s embarrassing, at age 75, to find out that you’ve held up evil as an ideal. All my life I have admired and respected those who practiced altruism and attempted to emulate them. Thank God, Rosman has set me straight before this incarnation ends so that I can make amends. Now, if he’ll just straighten out those who awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Doctors Without Borders.

JULIE FORD-MALONEY

Huntington Beach