Suicide risk

Published on Sunday 29 November 2009 21:14

REV Ian Galloway (Letters, 28 November) invokes the usual argument against assisted suicide.

He argues that it is a "slippery slope" and seems to fear that, if we allowed help in dying, we might slide downhill to widespread gericide.

Such arguments are rarely valid. On average, we allow just those freedoms that fit the moral consensus.

Believers are uniquely vocal in their opposition, which seems to be rooted in the commandment "Thou shalt not kill".

This would require the afflicted and helpless to stay alive to the bitterest of ends.

The faithful do not say openly that God should have a voice in a policy that would affect everyone, non-believers included. Perhaps they fear that we should ask them to establish His existence, and that this would be tricky.

It is true that there is a risk of relatives "assisting" people who do not want to die. I should like the courts to look quickly and efficiently into each case, and sanction assisted suicide in advance.

This would be an effective safeguard; would stop helpers worrying about being prosecuted after the event (and be cheaper than a murder inquiry); spare some the desperate, hole-in-corner deaths to which they may well be driven; and let believers and non-believers alike obey their conscience.

GEORGE BYRON

Comely Bank Avenue

Edinburgh