Dear Ann Landers,
lease tell me what to do about a woman twenty-seven years old who has a chronic respiratory ailment and is thirty-five pounds overweight. She smokes like a chimney and eats everything in sight. She "forgets" to take her medicine even though her doctor has told her she is a very sick girl and it is essential that she follow his orders. I am espe-cially concerned because I am the doctor and the young woman is my daughter. If this patient were a stranger to me, I would wipe my hands of the case, but how can I abandon my own child? Please give me some advice. I am alternately furious and depressed over this frustrating situation.-St. Louis M.D.

Dear Doctor,
If you want your daughter to live, you'd better pretend she is someone else's daughter and wipe your hands of the case. Give her a list of three physicians and tell her to select one. This young woman is using her illness as a weapon. She is determined to ignore your orders and do as she 41 pleases if it kills her. And it might-if you continue as her physician.