Letters

Letters

Half-Baked Alaska

It was fun to read about our band of merry grads in Alaska ["N.U.'s Legal Eagles," November 1997]. However, I am a bit embarrassed that I was credited with running the governor's successful campaign . . . I ran his successful mayoral reelection and his first (but losing!) gubernatorial race. A friend of mine deserves the credit for managing his 1994 winning campaign for governor.

Annalee McConnell, L'79
Juneau, Alaska

Animalistic Abuse

Thank you for your timely article ["The Web of Cruelty: What Animal Abuse Tells Us about Humans," From the Field, September 1997]. Arnold Arluke's research into Massachusetts Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals data confirms once again Federal Bureau of Investigation studies that have taken place since the '50s. Cannibals like Jeffrey Dahmer and the recent shooter at a high school massacre in Mississippi both delighted in torturing animals. The Mississippi youth carefully documented his pet dog's beating, burning, and drowning. On the local level, let's see what the cowards who hung a pit bull from a tree in Mattapan in October have in store for their fellow human beings.

Jordan Gallagher
Boston

Truth Telling

Thank you for printing Dr. Susan Love's speech to the Ford Hall Forum ["Time to Tell the Truth," November 1997]. All too often, people make critical health-care decisions without being adequately informed of the risks, benefits, and less invasive alternatives. The insurance industry has magnified the problem by limiting choices, access, and alternative and viable treatments for millions of Americans who pay exorbitant costs for insurance and treatment. And, in the end, there is little oversight, accountability, or protection for medical consumers to assert their rights. People are influenced by sound bites from the media and do not understand the limitations of medicine and the long-term consequences. In part, this is due to time constraints that don't allow issues to be discussed in depth. On the other hand, it's bad for business for those who profit from a lucrative health-care market to address systemic problems and basic human rights for consumers of health care. It's safer to discuss the high cost of care and ignore the issues of quality and human rights.

Dr. Love cites the use of fertility drugs as becoming a standard treatment without having been really tested. She states: "That's another example where people say, 'Oh, well, fertility drugs-we don't have any data that they're dangerous.' That's because we don't have any data, not because we know they're safe. Of course, the fertility doctors aren't going to be the ones leading the charge, because they'd just as soon not know if they're dangerous. But we really have no idea." Dr. Love doesn't mention the fact that fertile college coeds are taking these powerful experimental drugs and undergoing invasive procedures to "sell" their eggs. Is this not exploitation, when we know from history that today's "standard of care" can become tomorrow's nightmare? I have met and worked with caring and compassionate nurses and physicians, advocacy groups, and hundreds of people throughout the country who believe, as I do, that consumers should be included in the system and have a voice in educating the public and demanding health-care rights. The irony is that most of us share the knowledge and the truth that Dr. Love refers to, which comes from personal experience. We concur that it's "time to tell the truth"!

Linda DeBenedictis
Norwood, Massachusetts

DeBenedictis is president of the New England Patients' Rights Group.

Conserving China

Since Mr. Tozier says, "I am aware of the liberal inclination of your publication" [Letters, November 1997], I assume he calls himself a conservative. In that case, he should stop complaining about Beijing's tyrants, since so many of the (at least somewhat) conservative businesspeople in the West are falling all over themselves to do business in the country and thus support the current regime. (And please, no hypocritical excuses about how the business helps the poor peasants.)

Arleigh Hartkopf, MS'68, PHD'70
Coshocton, Ohio

We welcome your letters and reserve the right to edit them for space and clarity. Send them to: Letters to the Editor, Northeastern University Magazine, 360 Huntington Avenue, 598 CP, Boston, Massachusetts 02115. Fax: 617-373-5430. E-mail: kgornste@lynx.neu.edu.