Iranians Deserve Constitutional Referendum

Re: “Iranian Exiles Declare Their Unified Stand for Democracy,” Josh Gerstein, Page 1, March 14, 2005. Iranian political leaders are also confronted with a huge responsibility, unlike anything they have experienced in the past 26 years. For the first time, they are confronting an unpopular regime that faces a severe legitimacy crisis. Irrespective of any sweeteners that may be on offer, both the United States and the European Union are unlikely to arrive at any kind of meaningful long-term solution to their existing disputes over Iran’s nuclear program. In the face of the extremely low voter turnout in the past two national elections, the demand for a referendum to draw up a new democratic constitution must now be given the highest priority. Failure on the part of the Islamic regime to honor this peaceful and nonviolent request clearly sets the stage for the mobilization of active resistance on the part of a disillusioned general public for challenging the status quo, a strategy that Iranians of all persuasions, including those at the meeting in Los Angeles, are happy to support without any reservation.

MEHRDAD KHONSARI
Leader, Constitutional Movement of Iran (Frontline)
London

Culpability in the Ferry Tragedy

Re: “City Is Faulted in 2003 Ferry Crash,” Jeremy Smerd, New York, March 9, 2005. The National Transportation Safety Board’s report on the Staten Island Ferry crash called the city’s supervision of the ferry operation “complacent” and “abysmal.” Yet a midlevel manager is the only official of the Department of Transportation facing prosecution, other than the ferry’s captains. The senior management is escaping blame on the grounds that they were uninvolved in ferry operations and that the ferry unit had long-term and systemic problems that had not been addressed over many decades. How can this be a legitimate excuse?

Mayor Bloomberg has often praised DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall as one of the best managers in his administration, yet she apparently paid little attention to a major unit of her agency, one that failed its responsibility for the safety of the ferry passengers. At the time of the accident, she had been commissioner for more than three years, certainly long enough to identify and start addressing these problems. Why is she not held accountable? Does being the wife of Senator Schumer make her immune from scrutiny? With 11 deaths and many horrible injuries on her watch, surely her resignation or dismissal, if not an indictment for malfeasance, is called for.

ANNA GOLDSTEIN
East Brunswick, N.J.

‘Misleading Millions’

Re: “Misleading Millions,” James J. Murtagh, Opinion, March 5, 2005. Dr. Murtagh says the movie “Million Dollar Baby” sends a distorted message in portraying right-to-die issues. In my own experience, and based on anecdotal testimony of friends, the “ethics debate” that should be addressed by medical and religious ethicists is the failure by physicians, especially those working in intensive care units, to honor a family’s decision to continue treatment for the end-of-life patient and to refuse to “pull the plug.”

Last year, my elderly father fell at home and sustained a subdural hemotoma. He was admitted to the surgical intensive care unit of a “world class” nonfaith-affiliated, Manhattan teaching hospital. His neurosurgeon lost no time in suggesting to my 83-year-old mother, still reeling in shock, that she allow him to pull the plug on the ventilator, which, he assured her, would be done in a most humane manner.

For the next seven months, I endured what can only be characterized as psychological warfare on the part of the ICU directors through their resident charges to “pull the plug.” Often, pressure was also applied to my mother, notwithstanding clear instructions that she be left alone.

I have spoken to many doctors who privately acknowledge the inherent bias of ICU directors and residents to “pull the plug,” even where it is clear that due to religious or other moral values, the patient and/or his family are clearly opposed. Thus it is not surprising that Dr. Murtagh derisively sneers at “conservatives Rush Limbaugh and Michael Medved huff and puff about ‘the sacred right to preserve life.’ “

What is almost never mentioned is the financial motive of the hospital and directors of the ICU in freeing up a valuable ICU bed for use by a new patient to maximize revenue in place of the elderly patient on Medicare maintenance. Also never mentioned is the almost-subconscious bias held by many younger doctors about not prolonging the life of elderly, ventilator-dependant patients.

BENJAMIN P. EISENBERGER
Manhattan

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