Threat to life not just from euthanasia

SUPPORTERS of David Seymour’s proposed euthanasia legislation conveniently ignore the advancement of modern medicine that is available to assist patients with painful and incurable diseases to live painfree for longer.

They ignore the reality that doctors are trained to save and assist human lives, not kill them. That legal drugs available and provided are given out to help humans live normal lives, not to kill them.

Euthanasia supporters also ignore the many horrifying reports from overseas, where it is legal, of its abuse, where lives including young children with a curable disease and accidentally the wrong patients have been euthanised. This is because the doctors responsible had fallen into the evil trap of ‘‘familiarity breeds contempt’’ in ending life.

We have seen another life legislation being abused —the gross abuse of available abortions.

Despite the 1977 Parliament instructions for consultants not to authorise abortion on demand, and that they must give consideration to the rights of the unborn child in their authorising of an abortion, today the opposite has happened in New Zealand, with abortions being performed on demand.

On average, annually, 13,000 lives with potential, who had no choice in the matter, are being deliberately terminated.

This abuse of the abortion act could be easily corrected by the Justice Department insisting that one of the consultants must be a registered psychiatrist and that the consultation must last more than 30 minutes. Pauline McIntosh Invercargill

Iraqi Army training

NOW we have trained more than 5000 Iraqi Army recruits, at a cost of

$90 million, isn’t it time they trained their own army?

Silly me, I forgot — it’s all to do with the United States, which started the whole mess in the Middle East long before Osama bin Laden came along. Kit Sutherland Queenstown