Letters: No beauty in pain and suffering

The arrogance of columnist Kathryn Jean Lopez [“Assisted suicide promotes a growing culture of death” — April 1] is astounding. She’s eager to wax eloquent by quoting somebody about how other people’s suffering is perhaps the place “where true beauty can be known,” and to determine for other people whether their lives are “worth living.” How are these things hers to judge? This seems very strange for a self-styled conservative who might otherwise consider herself a champion of liberty and individual choice.

Let Ms. Lopez manage her own suffering in her own way and allow others to do the same.

David G. Whiteis, Humboldt Park

Laws can limit doctors on assisted suicide

I am a loud advocate for physician-assisted suicide. Carefully drawn legislation can limit this choice to those who are terminally ill and who have exhausted all reasonable care and for whom even palliation is futile. For these patients more care is torture; it does not extend a life of quality but rather prolongs suffering. It turns on its head the oath to do no harm that all physicians swear when entering the profession.

Paul Bloustein, M.D., Cincinnati

Do the math on CTA costs

How about a math exercise? CTA 95th Street Station reconstruction estimated cost is $240 million. Red Line Wilson Avenue Station reconstruction is $200 million. A total of $440 million. (How much over budget is anyone’s guess.)

Annual riders: 4 million and 2 million, respectively for a total of 6 million. Over 10 years there are 60 million riders. This equates to over $7 per ride before factoring any operating costs. The current full fare is $2.25. In what reality does this make financial sense?

Perhaps the CTA needs to charge what it costs to provide the service so the quality can be improved.

Earl Weiss, Skokie