Man of the Year?

SIR:

IN A YEAR WHEN ALL STATESMEN, DIPLOMATS AND POLITICIANS FAILED AT PEACE, THERE IS BUT ONE MAN OF THE YEAR. HE IS THE SOLDIER IN KOREA, FIGHTING AND DYING FOR A SPIRITUAL GOAL IN A MATERIAL WORLD . . .

WILLIAM DAVIS

EVANSTON, ILL.

Sir:

This hurts me as much as it does you, but in the name of journalistic and historic objectivity, the man who literally is leading the world by its bloody nose--Joseph Stalin.

ALEXANDER MARCOV

Miami Beach, Fla.

Sir:

. . . Mao Tse-tung ... A repugnant choice, but . . . most newsworthy.

B. G. Hoos

Berlin, N.H.

Sir:

. . . Secretary of State Acheson, under whose foreign policy leadership, China's 400 million people have been tipped into the Communist bloc rather than held out of it . .

JOHN J. MURPHY

Bellwood, 111.

Sir:

. . . General MacArthur . . .

PERCY A. BLACKBURN

Geneva, Switzerland

Sir:

. . . Warren Austin . . .

DAISY C. WEST

Terre Haute, Ind.

Sir:

... His Holiness, Pope Pius XII.

REV. THOMAS A. STANLEY, S.M.

Fribourg, Switzerland

Sir:

. . . Senator Taft . . .

L. L. GOODMAN

Indianapolis, Ind.

Sir:

. . . Hopalong Cassidy, who stands for what is right . . .

HERMAN LOCKHART

Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.

Sir:

. . . The originator of Dianetics: L. Ron Hubbard.

WILLIAM J. YOUNG

Wichita, Kans.

Sir:

. . . Dwight D. Eisenhower . . .

NANCY BURNS

Santa Monica, Calif.

Sir:

Stalin . . . He has achieved his goal in bringing grief to the world.

DAVID ARNOLD

Paynesville, Minn.

Sir:

. . . Leave the cover blank.

JOHN A. JAMISON

San Antonio

A Terrible Trap? (Cont'd)

Sir:

With the recent turn of events in Korea, I can't help recalling the warning of Reader A. L. Peake, written in the days of the Pusan perimeter and appearing in a letter to TIME, Sept. 25. He stated: "... The Reds . . . might not want to push us off the map yet; if they wait a few more weeks, we will have brought to Korea the biggest part of our front-line fighting force . . . Then, a real all-out offensive . . . could actually wipe out a major part of our trained and equipped ground forces . . ."

He underestimated the Red strength in numbers, but he certainly had the right idea.

FRANK THOMAS

Moscow, Idaho

Doctor's Dilemma

Sir:

As a loyal non-Catholic supporter of the Brownsville (Texas) Mercy Hospital, I bitterly resent your article, "Doctor's Dilemma" [TIME, Dec. 4] ...

In case of diseased organs, this operation [sterilization] is permissible in a Catholic institution. However, the legality of sterilization is not the question, but the adherence to hospital rules.

Dr. Stephens could so easily have taken his patient to a non-Catholic hospital, a few miles away, if he had desired to abide by medical ethics. However, by his own admission, he hoped to" get by without the administrators' knowledge of his act . . . By so doing, he repudiated his signed pledge to adhere to hospital rules . . .

MRS. DEAN PORTER

Brownsville, Texas

Sir:

It is the belief of the Roman Catholic Church and those who follow its teachings that the mutilation of the body for the purposes of contraception is a violation of the natural law and the revealed teachings of Christ. For this reason, Sister Mary Adele and the Brownsville Mercy Hospital were morally bound to act as they did . . .

I object to the tenor of your article which portrays Dr. Stephens being persecuted in his "dilemma" . . .

DENIS A. BOYLE, M.D.

Yeadon, Pa.

Sir:

"Doctor's Dilemma" revived for me the impotent fury which always attended a recitation of similar experiences by my father, "a horse and buggy doctor" for 50 years in central Iowa.

Fortunately, a growing consciousness of the importance of maternal health will eventually discredit this medieval meddling . . . Meanwhile, in enlightened communities, conscientious obstetricians such as Brownsville's Dr. Stephens will be provided facilities where doctor and patient, alone, will determine what is best . . .

J. R. MERRILL

Worthington, Ohio

Sir:

... I wish to enter a rousing cheer for plucky Sister Mary Adele of the Mercy Hospital in Brownsville, for standing by her guns and refusing to permit mutilation of the patient under her care . . .

ROBERT DEAN MATTIS, M.D.

St. Louis, Mo.

Sir:

. . . Elective sterilization for proper medical indications may be done at a hospital 20 minutes from our city. The executive committee of the medical staff (elected by the medical staff and in this instance composed of five non-Catholic doctors) approved the action of the administration by a vote of 5-0.

J. C. GEORGE

Vice Chief of Staff Mercy Hospital

Brownsville, Tex.

Sir:

We need more men like Dr. John Stephens of Brownsville, Texas . . . Tradition, with bolted doors against progress, has turned mighty nations into nothing . . .

W. C. HELLER

Rome, Italy

Sir:

The article about Dr. Stephens and Mercy Hospital will draw hundreds of letters from protesting readers who will coat the facts with a varnish of personal sentiment.

The facts of the case are as follows: Mercy Hospital is a Catholic hospital which has a rule against sterilization. This rule is known to the doctors before they send a patient to the hospital; it is known also that if the rule is broken, the facilities of the hospital will no longer be available to the doctor. Dr. Stephens signed a promise to abide by the rule not to perform an operation for sterilization. Knowing that such an operation would close the hospital to him, he nevertheless performed it. The facilities of the hospital have, therefore, been closed to Dr. Stephens.

DONALD FRENCH

Kansas City, Mo.

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