MY father committed suicide in his mid-80s by overdosing on paracetamol.

Death by this means is prolonged and painful. Such individuals, according to your correspondents, should typically have the right to be assisted in terminating their lives (Letters, March 11 and 12). However, three other important rights exist which weigh against such an opinion.

How much would I have given for an extra half hour of my father's company, even if he did not want to communicate? And how much would his grandchildren have loved to have known him more? "Blood is thicker than water" expresses the strength of family bonds. Assisted suicide removes certain natural family rights.

For about three decades Dad cut himself off from normal societal contacts, refusing even to have a GP. But since "no man is an island", some still knew and respected him. In special ways society becomes more humane through the severely disabled, chronically depressed and suicidal. And so John Donne's poem continues: "Any man's death diminishes me; because I am involved in mankind."

At university my father turned from Christianity to humanism. Despite that, it is reasonable to suppose that there are also divine rights: 88% of the world's population believe in the existence of a deity. These too are infringed in an untimely death and are expressed by Job as he faced the loss of all his children: "The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord."

Part of being human is to have responsibilities as well as rights.

Rev David EC Ford,

7 Foxes Grove, Lenzie.

WHERE I am at one with Dr Stephen Hutchison (Letters, March 11) is that we both want the best palliative care for our patients. Where we disagree is that he wants to deny terminally ill patients the additional choice of assisted dying.

He says that it is unethical, but what is ethical about refusing a dying patient's request for assistance to die when the best palliative care has failed? He says that it is unsafe, but scrutiny of the detailed provisions of the bill answer these concerns.

He says most doctors oppose assisted suicide, but this is open to debate. He cites for example the Royal College of General Practitioners' opposition. But though there are more than 60,000 GPs in the UK, the number responding to the RCGP survey on assisted suicide was only 1700. In other words less than 3% of all GPs responded. Clearly the RCGP cannot claim to represent the views of all GPs on this issue.

There are good reasons to support the bill and I do hope that Dr Hutchison will reconsider his opposition.

Dr Jack A Macfie,

6 Albert Terrace, Edinburgh.