I READ the thoughtful piece on the issue by my learned friend Mr Tickell about the moral, legal and philosophical arguments around any future assisted dying bill which the Scottish Parliament may introduce (Faith, debates and assisted dying – what secularists must recognise, Dec 1).

Yet at no point is any consideration being made to the actor in this event, the patient themselves. The focus is all about external agencies and their potentially “evil” use of any legislation contrary to the patient’s actual wishes.

Many years ago I was at a concert and saw a 75-year-old lady I knew collapse forward in an unnatural way. My medical training kicked in. When I got to her she was still breathing, but shallowly, and it was clear from fluid build-up around her ankles that it was probably heart failure. We moved her to a safe place and with careful, acute care on site, she survived. I met her in Waitrose a week or so later and she thanked me for my actions but wished I had just left her as she was slipping off nicely to see her recently deceased husband. I extended her life by six months; but?

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I have watched loved ones being eaten from the inside by terminal cancer or being reduced to an unmoving cabbage by Alzheimer’s, and ask what is it we are preserving? These relatives had no “quality of life” at their end, just suffering.

Palliative care may, in the case of terminal cancer, slow the rate of advance down but it does not stop it. Vascular Alzheimer’s destroys brain tissue which will never be replaced and for which there will unlikely ever be a “cure” unless you can do a brain transplant.

As an individual I would wish to access any assisted dying system by personal choice via a legal codicil in my will to be actioned by those who have power of attorney over my welfare at the end. The codicil would have to be legally vetted on advisement by a solicitor and it would have to be made clear to me the potential outcome of my request. If the solicitor felt I was being pressurised by relatives or others then he would have the right to refuse the addition until further social and welfare checks were made. If I was clearly in sound mind and under no pressure then the solicitor could admit the addition of the codicil and advise those who took up power of attorney of my request, if I was not fit to make the request.

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What I have learned over the years is that the more “protections” and complexity you put in place in any process, the more you make it easy for the process to be abused or perverted to such an extend to render the process and its worthy aim unworkable.

Look at any modern health and safety manual and you will see what I mean. A system meant to protect workers and ensure employers provide them with the correct safety gear and training to operate equipment and that the employees use the safety gear and work according to instructions provided is now a legal minefield where common sense has disappeared out the window to the point where folk now have to be told the hot beverage they ordered maybe hot.

Peter Thomson
Kirkcudbright

REGARDING the assisted dying bill, I wonder how long it will be before there is a demand for a public inquiry following some cases of serious misconduct, or worse.

If Lucy Letby can get away with murdering babies with the safeguards surrounding her profession, or Harold Shipman can get away with his horrendous crimes, I for one am not reassured by the talk of safeguards.

Harry Key
Largoward