Euthanasia 2

Dr Jack Havill (Letters, April 13) says that in order to qualify for assisted suicide, the patient must have terminal disease, and irremediable, unbearable suffering.

But it is a well-known fact that overseas experiences show a relaxing of these criteria and have expanded them to situations which include newborn babies, children, those suffering from depression and dementia such as Alzheimers, ie, patients who do not have those conditions and/or are incapable of giving consent.

Once assisted suicide is legalised, trust in doctors will decline, as mentioned by Dr Engelbrecht.

There are good reasons for this fear. A report by Hull University in 2015 on the situation in Belgium reveals that patients are killed without their consent.

A quote from a Daily Mail article reads:

‘‘Doctors enter the medical profession to be protectors not destroyers of life.

This Bill [British] could utterly change the doctor-patient relationship, with vulnerable patients living in fear of a lethal injection from their doctor’’.

As we know, the British parliament overwhelmingly rejected their Bill.

The duties of doctors are governed by the principles of doing good (beneficence) and not harm (non-maleficence).

Further, our attempts to eliminate suicide will be compromised by the proposed change in legislation.

Society has a duty to oppose legislation that poses a threat to the lives of innocent persons. John Fong, Hamilton