Sir, Mick Hume says that he does not want the right to kill his wife (Thunderer, Feb 5). Nor do I want that right, nor did my Assisted Dying Bill propose that right. What I do want is for my wife to have the right to ask her doctor for assistance to die if she is terminally ill and is suffering terribly, despite the best medical care.
As the law stands, any caring doctor who assisted her to end her suffering through helping her to end her life would be guilty of murder, and the best that a compassionate court could do would be to find the doctor guilty of manslaughter. That is why the law needs to be changed.
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Until it is changed, if my wife were terminally ill and suffering terribly, and there were no other means to control her suffering, how could I possibly refuse her plea to help her to die, even though it would make a criminal of me? What would Mr Hume do if it were his wife?
Lord Joffe
Liddington, Wilts