End of life cycle

I’ve never heard anyone argue that each person’s time to die is divinely appointed, and therefore attempts to prolong or shorten life are immoral. Yet people still delight in refuting it!

Paul Brownsey (Letters, 19 January) then seemed to concede my point about the inevitability of perceived pressure to die by stating that any “pressure can normally be resisted”.

True enough, but I’d rather not have to feel that I was continuing to live against the wishes of others. And some will not resist the pressure and, tragically, will act to fulfil the desires of others.

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Dr Bob Scott (Letters, same day) believes that the fact that “the disabled, ethnic minorities, the very old and the less well-off are disproportionately under-represented” in assisted suicides shows that perceived pressure to kill oneself is not a factor. This data proved nothing of the sort.

Dr Scott seems to have 
succumbed to the fashionable assumption that “equality” between groups in society is a sign that all is well: never mind what’s happening, so long as everyone is getting their fair share of it.

Richard Lucas

Broomyknowe

Edinburgh

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