1. Doctors are certainly not forbidden to say "no hope at all," for liability reasons or otherwise. They may be rightly reluctant to say so until they are absolutely sure, or they may be unreasonably unwilling to do so for either personal reasons or an unjustified fear of liability, but it is a doctor's professional duty to give his true opinion.

2. Miracles are certainly not known to happen. This is a ridiculous assertion. What would be correct to say is that doctors are known to be wrong, medical opinion is often (probably mostly) based on informed guesswork with incomplete information, and that physiological processes are not fully understood and diagnostic tools yield incomplete data. There are no published cases in the journals of spontaneous regrowth of amputated human limbs, although I am sure some preacher can supply a hearsay anecdote of this happening.

3. Living wills are in fact extremely important, and making proper arrangements may help ensure that the plug is pulled when you want it to be. However, in most states it is of no effect for organ donation; the next-of-kin's consent is required by statute and cannot be waived. In New York, for instance, consent is required from the following in order of precedence under Public Health Law section 4351(4): spouse, children, parents, siblings, guardian. No matter how much you loath your next of kin or do not trust their judgment for legitimate reasons, they have veto power over your organs. Perhaps this would be worth writing your state legislators about.

Vanderbilt is an asshole driver as much as any of those he criticizes.

1. He lives in Brooklyn and drives a car, even for routine pleasure commutes. I lived in Brooklyn (and the outer reaches of Queens, which has much less MTA service) and I never had a car there, and believe me I resented those locals and Long Islanders who crowded the streets, polluted the air, and endangered pedestrians. Brooklyn has EXCELLENT subway service second only to Manhattan, and you are never more than a couple blocks from a bus. Some routes might take a good deal longer via public transit, but boo-hoo. Brooklyn is overcrowded and no place for cars. This is pure selfishness.

Going to Coney Island? It's only served by the D, N, Q, and F trains, and the largest transit station in the city at Stillwell Ave, and a beautiful one at that. You can relax on the elevated train and watch the city go by instead of cursing at traffic. And then there are the B36, B64, B68, B74, and B82 buses. And if you are so posh that you can afford a car, insurance, and parking in NYC then you could certainly have afforded a cab ride for an outing if you feel the need. Cars ruin Brooklyn.

2. He drives like an asshole, gets distracted by conversation to the extent that he runs red lights (can't say I've never done it, but come on), and my peeve, consciously doesn't signal in order to get a "surprise" advantage. One of the things I've hated about driving in the NYC/Long Island/Jersey area is that nobody signals, either out of pure ignorance or out of this perverted one-upmanship idea that it will help you sneak into spaces.

And readers chime in on the merits of signaling expressing the same concept. Guess what? If you don't signal so you can push into a tight space on the highway or in front of a car approaching an intersection, you are:

1. Committing a moving violation--signaling is REQUIRED when you turn or change lanes,

2. Endangering life, limb, and property.

By "hiding your intention" you create enormous risk, especially at intersections and highway speeds. Signaling puts people on notice of your maneuvers, and someone who is not closely tracking you could collide when you a quick unsignaled maneuver into their path. If someone gets hurt, it will be your fault and you will be liable; all because you thought you could save a few fractions of a second by unsafely butting into someone's way.

I can't tell you how many times I have seen near-collisions that would never have happened if some inconsiderate prick had simply bothered to nudge the signal lever.

Yes, yes, yes, I have. And it is frustrating. But not signaling makes you part of the damn problem. I don't start braking the law AND more importantly endangering everyone on the road just because sometimes people try to cut me out. That is selfish and immature. And guess what, even in NYC, it doesn't happen every time. Some people are impressed enough that you are bothering to signal that they will give you space, especially if you are a considerate driver and not trying to gun ahead in the wrong lane and cut in at the last minute. But I guess you're just permanently acclimatized to driving like a prick.

This is also different than going a bit above the limit when that is the prevailing speed of traffic. It is never safer to make sudden, unsignaled maneuvers. "Nobody's perfect" is not an excuse.

@Redpen: "Driving to the end of the merge lane and moving over because the road forces you" is not necessarily a brilliant idea on a congested highway. If you drag-race down to the end and there's no space to move into because everyone is being a prick like Lynx and won't give you space to merge into, then you've got nowhere to go and will end up in a high-speed wreck. Otherwise you'll end up slamming on the brakes at a complete halt at the end of the merge lane, unable to get up to highway speed and backing up traffic. Best to merge in as soon as it is safe when there's congestion.

@Lynx again, you are pulling that out of your ass. Cops do not cite people for driving at the speed limit. They may pull people over for going way under it, (especially suspected DUIs) or driving under the speed limit in the left lane.