Breast-feeding by a med student

WHATEVER THE subtext is underlying the National Board of Medical Examiners's refusal to grant Sophie Currier the accommodations she requires for breast- pumping ("Board won't relent for breast-feeding mother," Page A1, June 23), the situation illustrates what we have been finding in our research on lactation support. Despite the endorsement of breast-feeding as the optimal method of infant nutrition by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Healthy People 2010 initiatives, the behaviors of both society and the medical system continue to produce barriers for nursing mothers.

It is one thing for the healthcare system to endorse a health behavior such as breast-feeding, but quite another to change our own behaviors to make the goals possible for our patients. As a representative of the medical establishment, the NBME is sending the message to the public that we as healthcare providers are not all that serious about our health recommendations.

DR. NANCY TERRES
Boston

SOPHIE CURRIER is gutsy to challenge the board. She is clearly intelligent, hard-working, a high-quality person.¦ I certainly wouldn't want a doctor who is willing to sell her baby down the river caring for me. But the article shone a light on a different issue.

Currier was given special accommodations (twice the time) to take the test due to severe dyslexia and an attention disorder. Lactation is a temporary condition that won't affect her future performance, but the attention disorder is permanent. Will she require special accommodations throughout her career? Will she require 10 hours to perform surgery that would normally take five hours? Will the severe dyslexia result in prescription errors? Will her attention disorder allow her to take in a new patient's history and to give him or her the attention and focus a patient deserves? I am so on board with the allowance-for-breast-feeding cause. But at the risk of raising the ire of Americans with disabilities, I have to ask: Should students with dyslexia and attention disorders be allowed into medical school?

JANET JAMES
Lunenburg