Letter: Transplant `racism'

Sir: The very idea that a person should be denied a life-saving operation for the sake of political correctness is horrifying ("There can be no apartheid within the health service", 8 July); but it seems that that is precisely what Frank Dobson intends to do and what much of the press advocates in response to the case in which a kidney donor's family stipulated that the recipient must be white.

It is high time that the press and broadcasters ceased their enthusiastic support for this doctrine and started to challenge it: it constitutes a frightening limitation on our right to free speech on controversial topics. If there is a paucity of Asian donors, then we ought to be able to ask why; but such a question is liable to be branded "racist" and suppressed or answered only with abuse.

A M SMITH

London W6