Letters: Don’t put profit before the safety of girls on night out

We have instilled in her since she was 18 that she does not walk home alone in Edinburgh (we live in the New Town) and she either phones us to get a lift or gets a taxi home.

She entered the first taxi and gave her address. The taxi driver refused to take her as it was such a short distance. She then tried the next taxi in line and again he refused to take her as the distance was too short and not worth his time. She tried the third and was met by the same response (the journey would have cost £3.50).

Thankfully one of her friends came out of the nightclub and was going to Bruntsfield. They both got in and she was dropped off at our address. She didn’t unfortunately get the numbers of the taxis that refused to take her.

In Edinburgh in the last two weeks, three women have been sexually assaulted.

I am absolutely furious that taxi drivers are putting profit before the safety of a young girl on her own wishing to get home safely. The three taxi drivers should be ashamed of themselves.

Kevin Rafferty, Edinburgh

Europe in driving seat is no future

DO those who support what is being sold to them by the SNP as independence realise that what they are going to get is the total control of Scotland by unelected bureaucrats from Brussels, plus a currency called the euro which is on the rocks?

Where is the sense in this?

A country with Scotland’s history of achievement should be standing on its own in the world, as a truly independent nation.

Recent advances in the field of renewable energy, for example, could surely form the basis of a new independent economy.

I am sure that other growth areas would come to mind if real independence was achieved.

Malcolm Parkin, Gamekeepers Road, Kinnesswood, Kinross

Hill of a place to put those rings

I AM glad that Historic Scotland has refused consent for the Olympic rings to be placed on Edinburgh Castle ramparts.

I think that the best place for them, if we have to have them, would be on top of Calton Hill, hung on the unfinished Grecian pillars.

After all it was in Greece that the Olympic Games were born, so it would be very fitting for them to be hung up there.

They would be seen from a great distance and anyone on Princes Street would also see them. Visitors could walk up and see them up close.

Sandra McCormick, Edinburgh

Elusive concept of human dignity

SO often in medical ethics debates, such as on assisted suicide, the concept of human dignity is used without any clarifications.

But this can cause problems when commentators talk past each other because they have different understandings of human dignity. For example, it is possible to characterise the concept as representing something human persons can lose if they behave or are treated in an undignified manner.

Alternatively, it is possible to consider human dignity as something that is bestowed equally amongst all human beings and can never be measured nor diminished. This understanding is, for instance, embodied in the preamble of the UN’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights which affirms “the inherent dignity and half the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family” as “the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world”.

Defining human dignity is not an easy task. But even though it is a difficult concept to characterise, this does not mean that it is not extremely important. Indeed, the whole of civilised society depends on this concept as the basis of democracy and responsibility.

The seventh Edinburgh International Film Festival on Medical Ethics, which takes place at the Edinburgh Filmhouse from November 25-27, will be used to bring some clarifications to this concept while also emphasising the reasons why it is vital for Scottish society to continue to protect and uphold inherent human dignity.

Dr Calum MacKellar, director of research of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics, Morningside Road, Edinburgh