Saturday, August 11, 2012

The Predictable Death of David Rakoff


"Today" reports the news of David Rakoff, a humorist and author with a cynical viewpoint:

"Rakoff opened up about his diagnosis on "The Daily Show" in 2010, once he was undergoing chemotherapy for a malignant tumor. (This was his second go-around with the disease, having faced Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphomia, when he was 22.) As he told host Jon Stewart at the time, 'When it turns out to be your own mortality on the line, people tend to be quite optimistic about their long-term chances for survival. The will to keep on going is incredibly strong.'"

Rakoff was cynical, but not cynical enough.  When will people become cynical about the "treatment" of chemo?  When will news reports start correctly reporting the cause of death?  Instead of writing that the person died of cancer, tell the truth and write that the person died of chemo.

Just say no to chemo.