Today’s letters to The Courier.
Sir, – The Courier column written by the doctor’s wife was a positive contribution to the long-running debates on euthanasia.
Developments in medicine mean desperately ill patients can be kept alive for prolonged periods often by means of excessively burdensome treatments and in severe pain.
Both my physiotherapist wife and I have ‘living wills’ as a result of the harrowing scenes we witnessed professionally in the geriatric wards of the NHS.
Claims that frontline palliative care is available to all UK patients are manifestly false and the country will increasingly be unable to afford such a service.
Large numbers of doctors admit in non-identifiable surveys they have resorted to euthanasia and opinion polls show that 80% of us want an assisted dying law.
Yet our politicians refuse to face the matter head on and prefer to off-load this ethical dilemma abroad in a morally reprehensible manner.
Legalisation would bring the practice of giving merciful release to patients in extremis out of the back alley and protect the vulnerable.
Having the option of physician-assisted death allows patients to maintain control over their situation and to end their lives in an ethical and merciful manner.
If such access is available here, the need for premature journeys to foreign lands and dying among strangers would be removed surely the ultimate unintended consequence.
Rev. Dr John Cameron.19 Howard Place,St Andrews.
The unravelling of all that has been for UK
Sir, – We are approaching a period of potentially huge change for the United Kingdom its possible destruction. The build-up to a referendum which will decide the fate of the UK has now begun in earnest.
The battle will be waged over as much as two years and set against the background of the potential collapse of the eurozone.
Both battles are vital to us. Facts and figures and numerous scenarios will be postulated. Whilst I believe that ultimately most people will vote based on their emotive roots rather than on sophistry, those of us from all over the UK who support its unity must strive to win over the undecided in Scotland.
The SNP have the upper hand now, the initiative is theirs, handed to them when the separate Scottish Parliament was created, in a way that sidelined our MPs.
It is vital that we all resist any temptation unwittingly to aid and abet separation. The mistake of creating a wholly separate devolved parliament in Scotland, distinct from Britain’s parliament, must not be replicated elsewhere in Great Britain.
We’ve messed enough with our constitution, a mistake started by Tony Blair and led by Coalition complicity towards the unravelling of all that we have ever been.
Mike Scott-Hayward.Sawmill House,Kemback Bridge.
Curtains for our cash?
Sir, – David Clegg recently commented on Pete Wishart, SNP MP for Perth and North Perthshire, mischievously talking of ‘measuring the curtains in the Scotland Office for our London Embassy’.
Sadly there is an element of truth in this, as if the SNP gain their objective of separating us from Wales, Northern Ireland, and England that’s exactly what would happen.
Perhaps not in the Scotland Office that would cease to exist but certainly in other property not only in London, but Paris, Washington and any other capital city you could mention, all over the world.
More civil servants are the last thing Scotland needs.
George Cormack.McLauchlan Rise,Aberdour.
Supermarket overload
Sir, – I write to you with my concerns over the new proposed supermarket on the Crieff Road in Perth.
Myself and my family reside in Primrose Crescent and feel having another supermarket within easy walking distance of the Tesco supermarket already on the Crieff Road and the possibility of a Sainsbury’s store further up the said road is ludicrous.
Should this proposal and the Sainsbury’s one get the green light from Perth and Kinross Council this would give Perth no fewer than 11 supermarkets. Is there any need at all for so many in what is still a relatively small town?
Although I appreciate Perth must move forward, it should not be to the detriment of existing communities.
Yes, I can see the appeal to creating 400 new jobs in a time of economic downturn but shouldn’t the council concentrate on filling all the empty shops in our town centre?
As a town we want people to visit the centre of Perth, not just the outskirts.
Gareth Dimmock.Primrose Crescent, Tulloch, Perth.
Trump rants get tiresome
Sir, – Harry Lawrie is quite correct to state Donald Trump is entitled to an opinion. Trouble is, when Mr Trump expresses his opinion he expects everyone else to bow to his wishes and has consistently refused to listen to anyone else who expressed an opinion.
A growing number of people who were previously pro-Trump are now finding his rants tiresome.
R. T. Smith.30 Braeside Terrace, Aberdeen.
Pound foolish
Sir, – Have our councillors got their priorities right? Whilst cutting funding to the Town Mission they appear content to consider putting £40,000 into lawyers’ pockets in appealing a planning decision.
Not to mention £2 million they are about to spend on an unnecessary new road at the Big Tree bends.
If the money had to come out of their pockets would they make the same decisions?
John A. Dorward.89 Brechin Road, Arbroath.
Get involved: to have your say on these or any other topics, email your letter to letters@thecourier.co.uk or send to Letters Editor, The Courier, 80 Kingsway East, Dundee DD4 8SL. Letters should be accompanied by an address and a daytime telephone number.