Letters to the Editor: Why expect seniors to prove their usefulness? Life has a lot of meaning after 75

To the editor: I sputtered all through Steve Lopez’s column on Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, who plans to draw a line under his life at 75, after which he will refuse any life-prolonging medical intervention.

Then I read Lopez’s last line: “There’s so much I still want to do.”

On reflection, I realize I feel sorry for Emanuel. He holds that he has lived a good, complete life. How on Earth can he say that? Does he not have any questions he still hasn’t had answered?

My rabbinical school philosophy professor is dancing around 80, and he’s still writing, teaching and contributing to the greater community. I’m seeing 75 in the rearview mirror, but my youngest grandchildren are 8 years old, and I fully intend to see them marry and to hold a great-grandchild.

And I will take any vaccine or antibiotic I need to in order to accomplish those goals. It’s about making meaning. It’s about caring about something so much that you want to be around to see it happen.

Dylan Thomas told his father, “Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” I’m with Dylan. What might he have to say to the good doctor?

Diane Cohen, Reseda

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To the editor: It seems that some people have totally missed Emanuel’s point.

He is not planning to crawl into a corner at age 75 and wait to die. He is an oncologist and has seen firsthand, over and over, how cancer treatment can completely dominate a person’s life.

During the 12 months I was treated for invasive breast cancer, all I did with my time was visit doctors, receive hours of chemotherapy infusions and radiation treatments, lie in bed recovering from surgeries, and take time-consuming medical tests.

I was 53 then, and that time investment was worth it, because I have lived well for another 14 years.

I feel the same as Emanuel. I will continue my zest for living as long as I can, but there will come a day when I will opt to spend my time as I want to, instead of as doctors insist I must.

Diane Scholfield, Vista

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To the editor: My mother, who lives with me, will turn 103 in about a week. She is frail and cannot hear well, but she has no dementia, reads the newspaper and books on her Kindle, does word puzzles and hollers at the sports teams she watches.

At 80, she had a tumor removed from inside her skull. At 92, she had surgery to remove her gall bladder. She has had all the COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.

Everyone who knows her is delighted by her. She doesn’t volunteer or “contribute,” and she isn’t “productive,” except for this: She produces love. We love her and will miss her terribly when she eventually goes.

It gives me a chill to think that we only are valued as seniors if we are seen as “doing something” for the world. Mom is a repository of stories of growing up in the Great Depression, serving in the Women Marines in World War II and much more.

How sad for the world if we can no longer value our elderly just for being who they are.

Catherine Crook, Camarillo