Assisted dying hard to regulate

■ I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree with Liz Carr’s comments in respect of assisted dying. Death should never be offered as the “solution”. Assisted dying is fraught with far too many opportunities for abuse and can all too easily be hijacked on spurious and cynical grounds for profit or personal gain.

Everyone should be supported to live life to the full until the end and be allowed to pass away with dignity when their time comes. Several people I have been close to have had terminal diagnoses, and in each case, while none were “assisted” in leaving this world as such, they were given access to palliatives that allowed them to drift away with dignity and in peace, surrounded by those they loved and who loved them.

Short of passing away quietly in one’s sleep, it is a dignified end, rather than an assisted one, that society should have as its goal.

Penny Hare, Brighton

■ Twenty years ago I became very weary and unable to eat. This went on for months. In spite of going back and forth to GPs, I was not diagnosed until my daughter refused to take me home.

I was told I had stage four ovarian cancer and was given two weeks to live. I worry that the doctors delayed my hysterectomy and appendectomy in the hope I would die.

I think assisted dying is far too easy to be arranged by those with ulterior motives. In light of the problems in the NHS, it is obvious the Government wants to save money. And what better way to do that than people dying?

Lynn Manning

Dagenham, East London

■ I have to fervently disagree with Liz Carr who is actively opposed to assisted dying. I realise it is a very emotive subject but, at the end of the day, I believe everyone must be allowed to terminate their life in the time and manner they choose without state interference. Michael Smith, Chatham, Kent

■ I think Liz Carr is right about assisted dying. There are too many things that can go completely wrong. Doctors and scientists should instead be concentrating on finding treatments for pain so that no one needs to experience this. We should be focusing on trying to improve the lives of people who are ill rather than trying to get rid of them.

Margaret McAlister

South Yorkshire

■ I respect Liz Carr’s opinion but disagree. None of us choose to come into this life and should be given the choice to leave it. I think psychiatric assessments would be able to determine whether people are capable of making the decision. Yes, animals are sometimes put to sleep for bad behaviour, but it isn’t the same situation with humans.

Neil Greenfield

Scunthorpe, North Lincs

■ If assisted dying became law, how long would it be before the Government decided that old and/ or disabled people were a drain on the economy that the country could not afford? I remember Boris Johnson’s telling remark, at the start of the Covid pandemic, that the bodies of old people should be left to pile up because they had already lived their lives.

Mindy Lee, Essex

■ People should be able to die with dignity. It is awful watching a relative waste away and die from cancer. Why should Esther Rantzen, who has campaigned for a change in the law, have to go to Dignitas to die alone?

Dave Mellor, Warrington

■ It’s not surprising that when this lame duck of a government gets into stormy waters, such as the drubbing they took in the local elections last week, it tries to deflect attention somewhere else.

This time it is the alleged data breach of the Ministry of Defence payroll system.

If only the Prime Minister had the courage to let the public show him what confidence we have in his government. We need a general election now.

Anthony Probert Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire