This is in response to the article (Feb. 28) quoting a pediatrician who objected to a methadone clinic location.

It is distressing when health care professionals such as that pediatrician enter the NIMBY fray and seek to block even those methadone clinic sites that meet all zoning requirements.

Does the doctor refuse to see children needing care if she is advised that mother and/or father are receiving medically prescribed treatment for their dependence?

Is there any evidence she can cite, from anywhere, supporting her fears for her patients, their families and her practice?

Has she ever asked medical colleagues to show her clinics they operate that include medication (methadone) in caring for dependence, so she can get a firsthand orientation from staff and patients regarding what treatment is all about?

Finally, the characterization of the clinic as “ … interested in making a profit, not about what’s right or good for Lewiston,” suggests — incorrectly — that there is a conflict between the two goals. Can it be that the private practice of medicine is being attacked here? This is America, after all, where most medical care is provided neither by government nor by charitable institutions, but by individual and organizational providers whose services depend on maintaining a certain financial return.

Robert G. Newman MD, MPH, New York City

Editor’s note: Robert Newman, MD, is director of Baron Edmond de Rothschild Chemical Dependency Institute, Beth Israel Medical Center, New York.