Dying in pain
SIR – Lucy Denyer writes sensitively about the need to reacquaint ourselves with death (“This Twixmas, we need to talk about death”, telegraph.co.uk, December 26). However, this will result in us discovering – as I have done as a congregational minister who has witnessed so many people dying – that there can be both wonderfully peaceful deaths and those that are horrendously unbearable.
Part of the answer is more funding for and greater access to palliative care, but as experts themselves admit, some dying people are beyond its reach. The two are not mutually exclusive, and it is time we also had the option of an assisted death if we are terminally ill, mentally competent and want it for ourselves.
It is not a matter of shortening life, but of shortening death. As a dying woman I visited recently told me: “Every night I pray to God that I won’t wake up in the morning, and every morning I am disappointed.” Why force her to suffer on against her will? How much more compassionate would it be to have the option of an assisted death in England, and not have to go to Zurich for it? Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain
Maidenhead, Berkshire
SIR – I have never forgotten a cancer patient several years ago, suffering badly, who looked at me and said: “You wouldn’t even keep a dog alive in such agony.” I had no answer. Jennifer Marston
Prinsted, Hampshire
SIR – My wife is a nurse. She and I owned and operated a nursing home specialising in complex cases. Looking at those we cared for, it was easy to see and accept that in many cases assisted dying would have been a release. Indeed, my wife is in favour.
However, my view is affected by the many years I spent as a solicitor. Barely a week went by without a family wheeling in an elderly relative, claiming that that person wanted to pass them all of their assets. After explaining the pitfalls to the relative, most declined to make a gift.
It was clear that very many were looking forward to an inheritance before its due time. Any form of assisted dying would have to consider that the prospect of accelerating receipt of an inheritance would be too tempting for many. Andrew Tredrea
Milton Abbas, Dorset