Sir, _ It may appear inappropriate that a doctor whose main field is the care of the elderly should comment on the Jamie Sinnott case but it is very relevant that for many years geriatricians and gerontologists throughout the world have recognised that assessments of personal competence on the single basis of years lived is to use an inaccurate and often flawed procedure.
A person may be mentally, even physically, young in their eighties or nineties while there are those who are psychologically aged in their thirties or forties.
Chronological age is a convenient parameter for the insurance actuary or the computer but has little validity beyond this. Real individual age and ability can only be assessed by measuring physical and mental competence.
Horses born on December 31st become yearlings twenty four hours later but human beings do not suddenly reach mental adulthood on the morning of their eighteenth birthday. An eighteen plus person whose mind or body is that of a child deserves to be given education appropriate to his or her mental and physical not chronological age. - Yours, etc.,
John Fleetwood Senr. FRCPI., FRCGP, Proby Square, Blackrock, Co Dublin.