To the editors;

Congratulations on your provocative editorial, and to the readers who responded with letters. When I edited the VILLANOVAN (’74-’75), Karen Ann Quinlan, then 21 years old, took some tranquilizers, drank some alcohol and became one of the lightning rods for the social debate over the right to die a decade later. I don’t think we covered the story of her overdose. With all respect to the interested parties in the Schiavo case, had Terry completed a Living Will and Advance Directives, her autonomy and privacy would have been protected, and her life and death would be none of our business! Out of tragedies emerge solutions. Karen Ann, Terry and Nancy Cruzan didn’t make their wishes known, but you all can- in writing, please!

Dr. John HopkinsV.U. ’75Seacoast HospiceEthics ChairmanPortsmouth NH