Tests for mummy, not for the poor

BEING ONE of the thousands of working poor who cannot access health insurance or affordable medical care in Massachusetts, it was not without some interest that I read Geoff Edgers's article ''MFA wants to know: Who's their mummy?" (Living/Arts, June 14).

In the story, a 4,000-year-old partial corpse from Egypt received the full range of expensive tests and procedures available at Massachusetts General Hospital, ''with the posse of hospital and museum staffers following."

There are many who would benefit from such ministrations yet cannot. I ask, ''Who's their doctor?"

JEFFREY POSTEL, Cambridge
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