It's Over, Debbie

To the Editor. —A recent issue of JAMA contained a disturbing essay entitled It's Over, Debbie 1 by a physician who is so uncertain of the propriety of his actions that he requested his name be withheld from the poignant essay. Although I strongly approve of his empathy as a physician for a suffering patient, I am astonished by his temerity and surprised that he was able to get away with a dose of morphine of that size without further ado. However, there are several serious omissions from his dramatic account, omissions that make it ring less true. Was she not already getting morphine, and if not, why? Why did he have to resort to a deliberate overdose to give her the surcease that was her right? What were this patient's daytime therapists doing about the failure of their regimen to control her pain and suffering? Why weren't they doing