Sir, – Your "My Obituary" column, which allows people to write their own obituaries while still alive, recalls the British Medical Journal's efforts in the 1990s to encourage self-penned obituaries – to be published post mortem.
The hope was that it would lead to more interesting obituaries – people would surely have insight into their own deficiencies and failures, rarely found in the standard eulogy.
For many doctors this could be their first and only publication in the BMJ, fulfilling a lifetime's ambition.
Whether due to modesty, lack of self-awareness or unwillingness to face the inevitable, few contributions were received and the project “died”.
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I wish your column a long life. – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY
Gaoth Dobhair,
Co Dhún na nGall.