Assisted suicide is not murder

28 June 2012

Christina Patterson writes in support of the law which forbids anyone from assisting in a suicide (Comment, June 21). I find her arguments unconvincing.

Lord Falconer says that "If people want to kill themselves, it's an entirely private matter", but "they can't kill somebody else."

But assisting someone to die is an entirely different matter from killing someone. The disability rights campaigner Kevin Fitzpatrick fears a society where "some people judge that other people's lives are not worth living".

But that isn't what is being suggested. It is the person who wishes to die who will be deciding.

KEITH O'NEILL

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