A dignified death

SIR – I read with interest the letter (February 24) from Baroness Greythompson and others, who suggest that assisted dying would not remove all suffering at the end of life.

The implication that increased investment in palliative care would solve these problems flies in the face of all evidence, and indeed of the noted palliative care champion Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, who confirmed that it “is not a panacea”.

Rather we need both, to give dying people the option of ending their own lives in the face of great suffering, while ensuring that those who do not want to take that choice can have the very best care. One does not preclude the other: in Oregon over the past 25 years, more than 90 per cent of those who have used the Death with Dignity Act have been enrolled in hospice care.

David Milne KC London WC1

SIR – My wife died in December 2020 from multiple system atrophy, a comparatively rare condition often called “Parkinson-plus”.

During the last year of her life she was at home, where I looked after her; and on one occasion, when she was taken to hospital, I had to remain with her to tend to her breathing mask, without which she would go to sleep and not wake up. (The condition causes the brain to shut down functions.)

She always said she didn’t want to go to the local hospice, and on particularly difficult days would say: “Just let me go.” Perhaps I was selfish, but after nearly 50 years of marriage I could not do that. However, an open and inclusive discussion – not just around statistics and individual cases – is long overdue on the subject of assisted dying.

John Hinton East Bergholt, Suffolk