THE END OF LIFE

Far too often in the latter half of my 35 years as parish minister in Broughty Ferry I sat by the bedside of a parishioner dying in extremis. I would long for the early days of my ministry when compassionate medical staff would put an end to such nightmares. How can our ‘woke’ society, which places such a premiumon individuals' rights, deny the fundamental human right to die in dignity and peace, making it a criminal offence for a desperate relative to come to a loved one’s aid? In a rational society physician-assisted death would be an option in the palliative process.

I knew the late Margo Macdonald since our teenage years. When I last saw her, the sportswoman I recalled from the springtime of life was wracked with Parkinson’s but she was still trying to get her assisted dying bill into law. When I deplored the negativity of main-line churches she told me that among her most staunch supporters were priests and parish ministers – the opposition came from church ‘leaders’ whose limited pastoral experience predated the focus acute geriatric units now have on 'life' prolonging treatments.

Rev Dr John Cameron, St Andrews