Questioning Steve Jobs’ cancer treatment choices just hours after his death is simply rude and offensive

How do you behave when someone dies?

Everyone knows the answer to that. You give the family space. You let them grieve.

Here’s what you DON’T do: You don’t challenge the medical choices of the deceased, quoting “experts” who suggest that his choices may have shortened his life.

That’s simply rude and incredibly offensive. But that’s exactly what the Daily Beast did last week.

Just hours after the news of Steve Jobs’ death, the Daily Beast prominently featured an article about Jobs’ “unorthodox” medical treatment.

The author, Newsweek science editor Sharon Begley, noted that Jobs’ cancer was a rare form of “very slow growing” cancer. She even states that some patients who have this cancer go decades without treatment.

And yet, her article questioned Jobs’ decision to delay surgery and explore alternative therapies. Nine months later, when the tumor had enlarged, Jobs opted for surgery.

Based on everything Begley states about his cancer and prognosis (keeping in mind that she didn’t speak to any of his doctors), the idea that his choices “may not have extended his life — and may have even shortened it” is just outrageous speculation.

Here’s a man who made brilliant choices his whole life and transformed our culture — all for the better. And yet immediately after his death he’s being second-guessed by a magazine editor who doesn’t even know the exact details of his condition or his doctors’ recommendations?

It’s rude and offensive and it’s REALLY bad form.

Sources:
“Jobs’s Unorthodox Treatment” Sharon Begley, Daily Beast, 10/5/11, thedailybeast.com