Readers' Letters: Suggesting death as a treatment is rife with perils

Regarding the article on Assisted Suicide (AS) by Katrine Bussey (2 January), in advocating for permissive legislation regarding AS, Liam McArthur MSP asks why it has taken so long to change the present law?

Reader believes allowing Assisted Suicide would endanger patients and put pressure on medical staff (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

The answer is that the perils of even suggesting death as a treatment have been recognised from the earliest foundations of medicine, and are real. The boundaries set by Hippocrates 2,400 years ago have stood the test of time for good reasons: “Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course.”

Approximately 30 per cent of patients admitted acutely to Scottish hospitals via Emergency Departments are in the last 12 months of life. A large number would “qualify” for AS, according to Mr McArthur’s proposals.

The suffering of many patients is intensified when they lie for hours on a trolley awaiting admission. What fearful dilemmas will add to their distress – or later as they lie for days awaiting a care facility placement – if assisted dying is to be considered? What dilemmas will there be for healthcare professionals if they are obligated – as Mr McArthur’s advisers propose – to make that option accessible as an end-of-life treatment?

It is naive to believe that discussing AS will be limited to cancer clinics and nursing homes. The proposed legislation will, over time, have a profound impact on the daily workings of the NHS, and in particular, the care of those whose illness trajectory is progressively downwards.

Our MSPs have a responsibility to serve the wellbeing of every citizen. That includes vulnerable people who will experience unspoken coercion to believe that to end their lives is the best solution to their problems. Permissive legislation will empower that perception. It also includes NHS personnel. Pressures at the front line that lead to moral distress are already present and extreme.

(Dr) D Robin Taylor, Edinburgh

April Fools?

I thought it was 1 January, New Year's Day, on Monday, but already today is 1 April or so it seems, with the news that the SNP/Green Scottish "Government" is promoting The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill which proposes changing the definition of “child” in the children's hearings system from someone under 16 to someone under 18. The Scottish Government's spin claims this could cut reoffending by keeping more young people out of the adult justice system.

I can foresee the forthcoming headlines and soundbites promulgated by the Government's army of spin doctors: “Scottish Government cuts the adult crime rate at a stroke!”

Somehow, I don't anticipate the logical corollary ensuing with the Scottish Government promoting Bills to raise the voting age and self declaration age, under an amended Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, to 18.

Let's face it, manipulation of crime figures is one thing, but wooing the votes of the vulnerable and inexperienced is quite another cynical kettle of fish.

Fraser MacGregor,Edinburgh

Honours defended

Reading Marjorie Ellis Thompson’s latest list of complaints about our institutions and economic system, it’s hard to fathom how this expat American lady can endure remaining in such an “ever more unequal society” as ours a moment longer (Letters, 1 January).

Perhaps she’s waiting patiently for the establishment of this nuclear-free People’s Republic of Scotland for which she so tirelessly campaigns?New Year’s honours awarded for what Ms Ellis Thompson calls “services to shareholders” and donating to the Royal Opera House are (unsurprisingly) singled out with particular fury. The fact that opera provides jobs as well as entertainment is presumably unimportant, as indeed is the amount of growth and tax revenue generated by the undeserving capitalists also on the recipients’ list.

Perhaps Ms Ellis Thompson would find life more agreeable in China, Russia, North Korea, Cuba or various other repressive dictatorships we never hear her protesting about? Another option might be the utopian Republic of Ireland, so beloved by our separatist movement. But possibly the recent Dublin riots sparked by simmering inequalities and social tensions may have burst that bubble for a while?

Martin O’Gorman, Edinburgh

Fine failure

Fly tipping fines are being doubled. I think the key to the number of people caught is in the name of this offence – “fly” (which usually means no-one knows) so therefore this increased fine will not stop them doing it.

If anything is causing an increase it is the SNP cutting council funding, meaning council recycling centres are closed most days. Flytipping will only increase and neither the council nor police will have time, staff or procedures in place to stop it.

Elizabeth Hands, Armadale, West Lothian

Comic cuts

Les Reid’s reminiscences struck several chords for me, not least the Dan Dare mention (Letters, 2 January). I hadn’t been allowed comics until Marcus Morris published the Eagle in 1950. Dan Dare and spaceships were new and exciting for a wee boy living in Hyndland. As my parents packed to move to England, my Mum said my collection of every edition of Eagle would take up too much room. And binned them.

My crinkly lipped moment came when I was older and discovered a collector had paid £25,000 for the complete set. I was in my early forties when a hardback series of every Dan Dare adventure was published annually until Dan’s stories came to an end. I said farewell to Dan, Digby and Professor Peabody. And to the Mekon and the Treens; all strange green beings (we still have some of these at Holyrood).

I still have my Broons and Oor Wullie books. And I can still do a passable Donald Where’s Your Troosers. Geek that I am, I still peruse my Book of Glasgow Trams.

As Les says, the UK is a small nation with both a common culture and language and so much more. I agree: If it ain’t broke, why fix it?Right now, we Scots, English, Welsh and Northern Irish need one another, if we, as a United Kingdom, are to go successfully into an uncertain future. Too much has gone into creating over 300 years – when the chips are down – a one-for-all society. A society which could be relied upon in times of war or peace, to pull together, when facing crisis or catastrophe. It now needs rebuilding, regenerating, cosseting.There are 800,000 Scots living in England; 500,000 English in Scotland. The SNP never grasped the Union effect of cross-border friendships, blood-tying the two nations together with something rather stronger than any legislation.

Doug Morrison, Cranbrook, Kent

Which road?

It seems one man's meat is indeed another man's poison and while Derek Farmer (Letters, 3 January) was not impressed with the BBC’s Edinburgh offering, I was of the impression it was several steps up from the very Glasgow-based efforts of previous years. The country extends north of the Central Belt of Scotland and within the independence movement there are various shades, from independence and nothing less to both federalist and nationalists like myself.

Similarly, there will be many – and Derek Farmer might be one of them – who are impressed by the performance of Scottish Tories leader Douglas Ross and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar at First Minister's Questions, but I am definitely not one of them.

As someone, thankfully, who was ignored and allowed to get on with my job delivering groceries during the Covid-19 pandemic I truly despair at the constant talk of a “failing NHS” and a “failing education system”. Then again, my son is on placement to be a primary teacher and his sister wants to be a doctor, and constantly putting down the NHS and education system by politicians for political point scoring against the SNP, Scottish Government and First Minister is not my cup of tea.

Most politicians would not have a clue what is involved in supermarkets, delivering parcels, never mind being a medic or school teacher, bus driver or many other key services this country relied upon during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hopefully, and I don't necessarily think there is appetite for it, we can reform the Westminster system to ensure that the utterly shambolic leadership we saw under both Boris Johnson and Liz Truss never occurs again and at least agree that this country certainly does not want either during a crisis.

Remaining in the union is a recipe for disaster; as the late West Lothian Labour MP Sir Tam Dalyell said, devolution is a motorway to independence with no exit routes.

Was he right or wrong on that one?

Peter Ovenstone, Peterhead, Aberdeenshire

Relative pain

​Derek Farmer should think himself lucky all he has to worry about at Hogmanay is the BBC's traditional New Year’s offering with whatever has-beens and jumped-up ceilidh band they've crammed into a studio resembling a ramraided tourist gift shop.

Think of those of us who find this year a time of dread – being subjected to menacing phone calls in the early hours of the New Year.

Despite complaints to my provider and changing my numbers several times, somehow they still manage to find the new ones to issue their chilling threats.

Then again, my relatives seldom make good on their vows to visit with their brood, so perhaps I'll be spared another year.

Mark Boyle, Johnstone, Renfrewshire

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