LETTERS Voice of euthanasia
Sir: I am sorry that Alison Davis (Letters, 15 February) has so distorted my views on euthanasia as not to recognise that my plea was for patients in the terminal stages of ill- ness (which she, being a young woman, is not). It is nonsense to claim that it is simple depression that leads terminal patients to ask for release, but rather their awareness that death is at hand, that their suffering is intolerable and that no cure exists to halt it.
It is also misleading of her to claim that in Holland in 1990 some 14,000 patients were given euthanasia who had not asked for it without adding that, as in this country, these were patients whose conditions were so far advanced that their doctors gave them massive doses of diamorphine to ease pain but which inevitably shortened lives, or withdrew drugs that were keeping the patient alive but continuing unbearably to suffer. This is known as passive euthanasia and is done in consultation with the next of kin and is accepted in all civilised countries.
It is a travesty of my views and proof of Miss Davis's fanaticism to say that I believe that killing people is an adequate response to human problems. I believe no such thing. In Holland — and hopefully in the future here — the only permissible request for euthanasia must come from the patient, must be sustained yet can be withdrawn at any time. The patient's doctor must consult another doctor who is not a colleague and the next of kin must be informed. The patient must be told that his condition is incurable and terminal. In Holland agree- ment to voluntary active euthanasia is not, as Miss Davis thinks, given lightly. In 1990, the year she cites, 2,300 requests were granted but some 4,000 refused.
One day I hope that Miss Davis will come to realise that there are some old and suffering people who are so weary of life that their only wish, as Shakespeare put it, is 'to encounter darkness like a bride/And hug it in my arms' and that to deny them , this is both cruel and selfish.
Ludovic Kennedy
Ashdown House, Avebury, Wiltshire
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