A real-life story of my mum’s last few breaths

Thank you, Irene Rutter, for sharing your heart-wrenching account of the circumstances under which your mum and sad died (Letters, Feb 8). These are real-life stories of people suffering that motivate many of us all over the world to demand an End of Life Choice Bill.

These stories are a far cry from the illusory mirages regarding ‘‘elder abuse’’ and ‘‘coercion’’ with which opponents of the bill shower us daily.

In the Netherlands my mum developed breast cancer 50 years ago. After being in remission for seven years, the cancer metastasized to her bones. Her vertebrae collapsed one by one, then her femur fractured. She became housebound, in severe, unrelenting pain.

Having a life expectancy of a few months only, Mum decided ‘‘time was up’’ and she requested assisted dying. The oncologists who had looked after her all those years approved and she was assisted to die a week later with family and friends at her bedside. We said our ‘‘goodbyes’’, Mum got the injection, and drifted off to sleep, never to open her eyes again.

Forty years later we are still bickering over an EOLCB in New Zealand. Come on, politicians, vote yes during the second reading of the bill.

Alida Van der Velde, Waikanae

Problem dog-owners

Re ‘Nightmares’ after dog mauls toddler (Feb 4) and the brief ( Feb 1) about dogs being banned from public places in Iran because they cause fear and anxiety among the public, ACC records indicate an average of 30 people are injured by dogs every day in New Zealand.

In Wellington, we have a problem with dogs on beaches, particularly at Worser Bay and Seatoun Beach, where I regularly go swimming. There are notices in place banning dogs from those beaches between 10am and 7pm during the months of Dec, Jan and Feb. The notices at Seatoun Beach are quite confusing.

Dog-owners need to be made more aware of these restrictions and of the fact that many people are afraid of dogs, particularly the larger ones. Barking dogs are causing a noise nuisance in many neighbourhoods.

Wellington City Council should do more to educate dog-owners about the responsibilities with owning pets and put up more clearly worded notices on beaches where people like to swim. Kenneth Mulholland, Miramar

Shape up, business

How much longer will this farce continue? The media, politicians and business all blame consumers for plastic pollution. The easy target; nameless and faceless. Plastic over everything is what they want they say, and if the planet is to be saved they must give up their addiction to it.

Consumers, on the other hand, can only buy what business provides and have been saying for decades they don’t want a polluted planet and they demand their politicians do something about it.

Politicians take baby steps in the right direction and, immediately, business stamps its huge feet and says it will be out of pocket and the sky will fall. The politicians cave straight away and, once again, no progress is made.

And so the cycle in the demise of humankind, and marine life, continues its sorry gurgle down the plug hole. Singleuse plastic bags are such a token gesture. Business has had many years to adjust their practice, but still they say they are doing ‘‘what the consumer wants’’, when really they are just greedy and too mired in inertia to ever change. I for one am over this argument – try another.

Sue Smith, Waikanae Beach

Blaming ‘the Left’

Another letter from John Bishop (Feb 7) claiming ‘‘the Left’’ is the basic threat to free speech based on two letters to which he objected. Claiming ‘‘accuracy’’ and waving the banner of ‘‘free speech’’, he resorts to a familiar tactic. He blames a vague, amorphous but yet monolithic ‘‘Left’’ that apparently includes anyone who objects to hate speech.

Although the United States explicitly protects ‘‘free speech’’ in its Bill of Rights, a famous Supreme Court justice omitted shouting ‘‘fire’’ in a crowded theatre from its protections. When does ‘‘hate speech’’ become deadly enough to become the equivalent of shouting ‘‘fire’’? Did the person who killed 11 people at a Pittsburgh synagogue belong to ‘‘the Left’’?

Bishop might want to ponder the issue rather than just seek to silence people who raise that question by tossing out political epithets with a history that includes McCarthyism.

What about the recent killing of the mayor of Gdansk, which at least one Polish commentator attributed to the spreading of ‘‘hatred, contempt and intolerance’’ as leading to ‘‘violent acts’’ (Guardian). As someone who defended refugees and spoke for tolerance, did the mayor belong to ‘‘the Left’’ or did his assassin?

Dolores Janiewski, Highbury

US aggression

Re the editorial from the New York Times, Ruling gives power to might of the pen, (Feb 7), a US court found ‘‘Syrian strongman’’ Bashar al-Assad and his associates guilty of killing journalist Marie Colvin during a shelling attack in Homs, Syria, in 2012.

The brief editorial omits the fact that the Syrian government did not defend itself in the trial, and fails to cite the questionable source of the accusations, a supposed Syrian defector with the code name ‘‘Ulysses’’.

The judge in the case described Colvin’s death as an ‘‘extrajudicial killing’’. This tragic death took place in the course of one of the United States’ ongoing wars of aggression, wars that the UN defines as the supreme international crime. Granted, one extrajudicial killing is one too many.

But when will the US and its allies be held accountable for the hundreds of thousands of extrajudicial killings they have committed in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and elsewhere since September 11, 2001?

Phillip Rose, Newtown

A new era?

Perhaps the non-confrontational attitude of Jacinda Ardern and also to some extent Simon Bridges is one of the major reasons Waitangi Day at Waitangi was a success for the country.

Yes, there were the usual platitudes and promises but the coalition does have a plan in train to improve not only life for Ma¯ ori but for all people who do not appear to get a fair suck of the sav. One of the stumbling blocks has always been how to measure expenditure against success. The Wellbeing Budget this year should be the start of a new era where resources are matched to achievements so that the government can hopefully see light at the end of the tunnel.

Of course nothing will be achieved unless there is co-operation from all sides including those who need it most.

Reg Dempster, Albany

Shout-out to migrants

Karl du Fresne’s Pork barrelling alive and well under this coalition (Feb 7) is right on target comparing Shane Jones’ nebulous oratory with that of the late David Lange. I recall reading in Gerald Hensley’s autobiography that public servants of that era referred to Lange’s off-the-cuff utterances as ‘‘policy by blurt’’.

Coming right on top of Jones’ attendance at Ra¯ tana, it was a bit rich of him to slam any church as being somehow the beneficiary of Filipino farm workers coming here. Shane, even while your ‘‘naff nephs’’ decide whether or not to get off the couch, those cows still need to be milked and contribute to the living standard we all enjoy.

While I have some issues with migrants participating in the economy via ownership of $2 shops, I have nothing but respect for hardworking migrant dairy workers, rising at unsociable hours to build better lives for themselves and their families.

Rob Harris, Dannevirke