Protecting life

It is sad to read your article 'Going the Dutch way' (see [2001] Gazette, 12 April, 3) regarding the recent decision of the Dutch parliament to legalise euthanasia.

It is sadder to note that English solicitors are at the forefront of pressure to legalise euthanasia in this country.

No one should be in any doubt about the fact that euthanasia can never be and never is 'voluntary'.

It is natural for all human beings (like all other animals) to fear death and to wish to avoid it.

If someone does wish to die, that is evidence of some external pressure being exerted on that person, whether it be pain, fear, depression or whatever.

The wish to die is not voluntary and the answer is not to offer to kill that person but to remove that pressure.

That is the basis of the work of organisations such as the Samaritans, and it is absurd to undermine that work by legalising the killing of suicidal people.Occasionally, people at the point of death may genuinely wish to die and to 'let go' but that does not mean that they wish to be killed; in any event, it is not necessary for someone else to be given the power to kill them- by definition they are about to die.

The opportunities for abuse of a law, which allows people to kill other people, are so obvious as hardly to require mentioning.

We lawyers, more than anyone else, know the dangers.

It is our job to protect vulnerable people and we have no place pressing for laws, which will make it easier for someone to kill others at a time of extreme distress.

RM Haig, solicitor, Wilmslow, Cheshire