Times letters: Assisted dying and the right questions to ask

Sir, Lord Brown himself asks the wrong question: “Are there any circumstances in which the law should permit a terminally ill patient to seek, and a doctor then to provide, assistance in accelerating that patient’s death?” The answer is yes — just as there are circumstances when it is right to kill in self-defence. Neither justifies a change in the law.

There are much better questions. If we define assisted suicide as medicine for unbearable suffering, how can we deny it to anyone who is suffering? Is it possible to keep safeguards in place when access has been widened in every jurisdiction where it has been legalised? Is it right to direct some towards suicide and others towards suicide prevention? We can respond with compassion in rare cases where assisting a death is appropriate. But we should not remove the moral imperative to prevent suicide embodied in the 1961 Suicide Act. One need not be Christian to believe in the commandment “thou shalt not kill”.
Professor Kevin Yuill
Chief executive, Humanists Against Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Sir, Lord Brown cuts through the emotion and identifies the key question. This is in marked contrast to the letter from Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (Jan 2), which overlooks the key issue, personal choice. If, when she is dying, she wants to hang on to the end, with the symptoms that entails, then she can do so. But I don’t believe she has the right to impose her views on others like me who, when dying, want to do so in a way and at a time of our choosing. She claims campaigners for assisted suicide are coercing us all, but she appears to do the same by requiring people to conform to her opinions.
Dr Tim Howard
GP (ret’d); former chairman, GMC Tribunals; Wimborne, Dorset

Sir, Baroness Finlay suggests that campaigners for greater choice at the end of life are ignoring evidence from overseas. The truth is there has been a shift towards giving dying people the right to decide how and when they die, simply because without that choice some are forced to suffer or to take matters into their own hands. We are, in several UK jurisdictions, on the cusp of a change in the law. While those with personal objections to assisted dying will no doubt try to hold back the tide, there are many more who recognise that giving dying people choice and dignity is right.
Sarah Wootton
Chief executive, Dignity in Dying

NHS FUNDING
Sir, The underfunding of the NHS is a national disgrace. As union leaders have pointed out, cuts to services have an equivalent effect of a strike every day — with more than 130,000 vacancies. This is a critical point in that it directs the moral responsibility for the disruption back to the government. In this context the Tory MP Tobias Ellwood’s comment that there was “not enough money in the NHS’’ and that he expected parliament to debate the issue this week (“A&E delays ‘killing up to 500 patients every week’ ”, news, Jan 2) is limp and belatedly stating the obvious.
Mike Stein
Emeritus professor, University of York

Sir, I wrote to The Times over 20 years ago to thank the government for extra funds to build new intensive care beds when I was the clinical lead for ICU. Productivity was high and the taxpayer got value for money. Today the news is awful about the NHS despite massive funding. Why? There are fundamental issues: defensive medicine, the breakdown of primary care and the line of command in hospitals.

I was doing a preoperative visit last week for a patient having surgery the next day. He had been waiting in hospital for 17 days. That roughly equates to 17 patients stuck in A&E or 17 cancellations because we can’t move patients from intensive care to the ward. The NHS is crumbling and not because of lack of funds.
Sean Bennett
Consultant in anaesthesia and intensive care, University Hospital Southampton

ETHICAL INVESTING
Sir, James Kirkup makes an important point in highlighting the withdrawal of investment from ESG funds for the first time in a decade (business comment, Jan 3). This is symptomatic of many organisations and companies being unable to articulate their ESG approach, and must serve as a warning to all businesses. Companies need to be able to show they’re doing the right thing and explain why they are making the choices they do. Those unable to clearly define and measure their environmental and social contributions, their governance and their ethical practice will be challenged by their customers to do so or risk their loyalty.
Dr Ian Peters
Director, Institute of Business Ethics

DRIVEN FROM RAIL
Sir, Striking trains the public to manage without your job (“Millions ‘will shun trains for ever’ ”, Jan 3). Think about British coalmining or the mass car industry. Rail travel will go the same way.
Peter Davies
West Kirby, Wirral

Sir, The railway had been my method of getting to work for at least 20 years. Due to the strikes we became a two-car household for the first time last month. The new vehicle is named after the RMT union leader.
Steven Buckley
Truro, Cornwall

Sir, Before the 1955 rail strike my father commuted by train. During the strike he drove. When it finished he found it easier (and by taking others cheaper) to carry on driving, which he did for the rest of his working life.
Bryan Simmons
Bratton, Wilts

Sir, The government says rail strikes will put a generation off rail travel. But has anyone seen the price of a ticket recently or the state of the infrastructure? It’s no wonder people prefer their cars.
Colin Sherwood
Cambridge

SIZEWELL C
Sir, Your correspondent repeats several myths (letter, Jan 2). Unlike waste from other power sources, spent fuel from nuclear has a clear and highly regulated disposal route. Engineers at Arup have said that, once packaged, radioactive waste is “essentially benign”. At Hinkley Point C and Sizewell C, funds to pay for waste and decommissioning will be set aside during the 60-year operating lifetime so that taxpayers are protected from future liabilities. The Planning Inspectorate was satisfied we had fully addressed the flood risk and said that overall the benefits of the project would strongly outweigh the impacts. Essex and Suffolk Water has published a draft water plan which sets out how they will supply Sizewell C while ensuring a water surplus. Sizewell C, with other nuclear projects and more renewables, will help tackle climate change, lower costs and provide energy security.
Julia Pyke
Director, financing and economic regulation, Sizewell C

SAVE THE HIGH STREET
Sir, How refreshing to read “A way to revive the high street” (Times2, Jan 3), in which Robert Crampton advocates providing much-needed housing by utilising vacant space, typically that above and behind retail units in town centres. This space has the potential to be upgraded and turned into tens of thousands of low-cost homes. Repurposing should be supported by government grants to building owners and developers. The units could be made available for purchase or rental with the aid of government-backed funding. Surely, this makes more sense than building developments on green spaces, with the bonus of bringing people back to our depleted urban centres (leading article, Jan 3).
Simon Hickie
Chartered surveyor (ret’d); Burton Bradstock, Dorset

COMEBACK KING
Sir, The suggestion that there could be the return of a former leader in the summer (“Brace yourselves for a Johnson comeback”, comment, Jan 3) parallels the Restoration, in May 1660, of a king in exile. Johnson’s supporters can point to his present popularity and compare the calls for his return to the welcome given to Charles II after the bleak period of Puritan rule that followed the second civil war. His detractors can point to the Restoration as a period of profligacy in social life and a period in which politics was characterised by the absence of seriousness, under a “merry monarch”.
Bob Wells
London E4

SMOKE SCREEN
Sir, Dr John Lorains (letter, Jan 2) says it took a shock to stop people smoking. I was a cardiothoracic anaesthetist and every Monday morning I looked after patients having surgery for lung cancer. I lost count of the number of times the preoperative Q&A went as follows: “Do you smoke?”, “No, I’ve given up”, “When did you give up?”, “Two weeks ago, when I got the diagnosis.”
Jane Stanford
London SW13

WINE V BEER
Sir, The wine industry would do well to make available a wide range of small bottles or cans (“Pour us! Fears for wine industry after youngsters turn to beer”, world, Jan 3). A single glass is a reasonable treat and reflects a healthy, modest approach. Just try finding any at all in most supermarkets though.
Dominic Regan
Bath

VOWEL CHALLENGE
Sir, Eunoia by Christian Bök turns the lipogrammatic dial up to 11 (letters, Jan 2 & 3). It contains five chapters, each dedicated to a single vowel and containing words with only that vowel. It may not make for great literature, but one can only marvel at the author’s skill in creating meaningful stories under such a constraint.
Chris Broyden
Richmond, Surrey

BEST FOOT FORWARD
Sir, Polished shoes (report & leading article, Jan 2; letters, Jan 3) are not only a matter of courtesy to others: they reveal character. I was brought up always to look down when shaking hands with another chap. If his footwear was beautifully shiny, he was trustworthy and a gentleman; if it was scruffy and unkempt, he was likely to be neither.
John Hicks
Manchester

DREAM ON
Sir, Nigel Farndale (notebook, Jan 3) reminded me of an equally witty response from a loving spouse. The late Christopher Martin-Jenkins said to his wife, “Did you ever believe, in your wildest dreams, that I would become cricket correspondent of the BBC?” only to be told that he had never featured in her wildest dreams.
Tim Madden
Hersham, Surrey