Is a Photograph of a Body Appropriate?

Re “Death & Kindness” (Jan. 6): I have been a reader and subscriber of your paper for more than 20 years. I read The Times every day and even access it via the Internet.

I was absolutely shocked and horrified to see a large photo on the front page of the Life & Style section showing a coroner’s investigator, Joyce Kato, “pulling a decomposing body out of a backyard grave.”

It seems that rape, murder, fires, floods, gang shootings and various other sorts of mayhem are the major focus of the news these days. Does The Times have to literally drag a dead body across the page?

NATHAN MATZA

Irvine

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Although I found Angie Chuang’s article “Death & Kindness” interesting, I feel the front page of this section was extremely offensive. I do not need to see a decomposing body to understand the grisly aspects of Joyce Kato’s job.

R. GWEN CAMP

North Hollywood