The right to end our suffering

Sir, – The Rev Dr John Cameron is right that assisted dying is “an idea whose time has come” (“The right to a merciful death”, Letters, April 11).

We can make decisions about most aspects of our lives but it seems that other people must decide how we die.

Several surveys have shown that the vast majority of people believe that assisted dying should be legally available, along with the necessary checks and balances to ensure that it is a choice freely made by the individual concerned.

Unfortunately, most of our elected representatives in the Scottish Government have twice voted against a change in the law, despite the opinion of most of those who elected them.

In places where assisted dying is legal, some people who say they want to take advantage of this never actually do so. Knowing that they can, when things become completely unbearable, is like an insurance policy: they are reassured by having it, but find that they don’t need to use it.

I’d like to have that reassurance myself, if I am ever suffering intolerably without hope of recovery.

We are spoiled for choice about pretty much everything else, why can’t we decide when we have suffered enough and get help to end that suffering in a location and at a time of our choice?

Of course, some people’s religious views will mean that they will never take any action that will shorten their lives, but why should that prevent the law changing to benefit the rest of us? Moira Symons Tayside Group Coordinator, Friends at the End, 17 Woodlands Gardens, Dundee.