Letters
Commissioned obituaries should be abandoned
EDITOR,--Those of us hoping to write our own obituary have a particular interest in the BMJ's problem concerning the pressure on the obituaries pages.1 It is we who scan the items for names we recognise and who choose to read other contributions when style or content commends.Obituaries in the broadsheets are currently enjoying a wider readership owing to a greater emphasis on anecdote, a refreshing frankness, and sometimes a note of acerbity. What is published in life is not determined solely by who you are but by editorial selection based on the quality of the writing and the expected interest of readers. The same criteria should obtain after death.
I suggest that the BMJ should allow an announcement of death, hedged by the usual caveat regarding time; it should be restricted to, say, 50 words and presented in a format similar to the italicised paragraph in obituaries published now.
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- Growing pressure on BMJ's obituaries
- Liz Crossan and Richard Smith
BMJ 1995 310: 5-6.[Extract] [Full Text]
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