Readers' Letters: Suicide isn’t only route to a dignified death

By Scotsman Letters
Published 1st Jul 2021, 07:00 BST
Comment
Campaigners in support of assisted dying gather outside the Houses of Parliament in 2015Campaigners in support of assisted dying gather outside the Houses of Parliament in 2015
Campaigners in support of assisted dying gather outside the Houses of Parliament in 2015
Assisted suicide is being suggested to the Scottish people as being a lawful way to end a person’s life. A cross party group of Scottish MSPs have decided to dress up assisted suicide as “Dignity in Dying” – a clever euphemism which suggests that many people do not have dignity in death.

I have been a witness to six deaths within my family in the 61 years of my life and all were eased with painkillers ie morphine and a benzodiazepine such as diazepam, to ease anxiety; they all died with dignity without resorting to suicide.

I would strongly advise the Scottish people to fight any change in the law related to assisted suicide, there are enough good drugs, palliative care teams and good hospice facilities to assist the dying without resorting to suicide which, in my opinion, would rip many families apart, with some agreeing with the decision to assisted suicide and others totally disagreeing with it.

John Smith, Falkirk

Basket case

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

It is truly amazing that so many Scottish Nationalists seem to believe that independence, if you can call subservience to Brussels “independence”, would make for a financially sound country, and offer no clue as to how they think it could be so. Firstly, Scotland could not satisfy the criteria for membership of the EU; I concede that the EU have discretion on that point – but only on condition that these criteria are met within a set period, usually a year after admission. An independent Scotland would become a disastrous basket case because Nicola Sturgeon’s promised Utopia would be impossible to finance, cut off from the flow of cash from the UK. Scotland would, in fact, go bankrupt.

Nevertheless, some Nationalist might be able to prove me wrong by providing facts and figures in support of the financial viability of an independent Scotland.

David Hollingdale, Edinburgh

Live with Covid

Both the prime minister and the new health secretary are adamant it’s time for Britain to learn to “live with Covid”. After so many months of unparalleled suppression in economic and cultural life, and with vaccines providing adequate protection against Covid, only the most obtuse control freaks oppose a return to normality.