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Private decisions, public interference

March 29, 2005

I WAS REALLY interested to see your photo essay in last Sunday's Globe about families who made crucial medical decisions for incapacitated loved ones (''Life-or-death choices," March 27, City & Region).

The one thing each of those families had in common was not their terrible decision or its outcome but that all were left alone to make that decision without the benefit of congressional and presidential interference.

Where was the radical right- inspired hysteria? Where was Florida's Governor Jeb Bush with his threatened commando raid? Where were the protesters with their taped mouths? Where were the death threats against patients' family members and hospital staff?

Perhaps the families described were grateful to have been allowed to make private decisions privately.

ERIC A. DOMESHEK
Cambridge

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