While I accept that Dr Iain Kerr's motives may have been good, I cannot agree with the action he took in helping his patients to die ("Scots doctor: I helped my patients kill themselves", The Herald March 13).

His actions were against the law, and should not be encouraged. Having worked as a medical practitioner in the NHS for 40 years I recognise that some patients do indeed suffer severely as they approach death. However, the way forward is not to take life but to do all in our power to mitigate their suffering and to compassionately care for the dying.

There is an inference from those who support assisted suicide that those who are against it are lacking in compassion. I can assure you that inference is totally untrue and unsubstantiated. Those who care for the suffering and dying are motivated by compassion and care.

The proposal to legalise assisted suicide is, I believe, morally wrong and dangerous. It is a step too far, and I believe we should never go down this route. In the Netherlands, where assisted suicide has been legal for a long time, it is now the practice to euthanise children. Senators in the Danish Government are at present discussing extending assisted suicide/euthanasia to children. It is human nature to push to extend legislation to the extreme.

If we in Scotland legalise assisted suicide, you can be sure there will be intentional extension of the practice, leading to euthanasia of patients, including children, in future. No guidelines or rules governing the law will be able to be properly audited or monitored, and will by nature be subjective.

This is a road we must not go down, at any costs.

Alasdair H B Fyfe,

59 Mearns Road, Clarkston.

As an elderly NHS patient I read with considerable interest and not a little trepidation your report on Dr Iain Kerr's continuing campaign in support of Margo MacDonald's proposed assisted suicide legislation.

However one might admire this, now thankfully retired, GP's "steely determination" to assist in the suicide of elderly patients who no longer wish to live, it does not follow that his experience and his example form a suitable basis for legislative action. In this respect, I was very far from being re-assured by his own admission that one of the patients he no doubt compassionately helped in the achievement of this objective was "actually not ill (but) a bit agoraphobic", or in other words, very far from being a terminal case.

It is some consolation that the British Medical Association continues to oppose the proposed legislation, as do Scotland's two main Christian denominations, the Church of Scotland and the Roman Catholic Church.

Finally, I object to this proposed legislation being consistently described as the right to die. Death is ultimately inevitable, and both suicide and attempted suicide are in any case not illegal. This legislation is about the so-called right to pressurise others – whether they be members of the medical profession or close family members or friends – into being complicit in bringing a premature end to one's own life. The majority of the population, who would not be taking advantage of the proposed legislation, have rights too.

Ian O Bayne,

8 Clarence Drive, Glasgow.

In the interests of balance, I look forward to a front-page photograph of a caring GP who does not hold with assisted suicide, but whose convictions lead them to providing their patients with the best possible care to enhance their lives, however long or short they may be. Whether or not they know how to infuse Earl Grey tea is neither here nor there.

Dr Lesley Mackintosh,

Williamwood Pactice,

85 Seres Road, Clarkston.

Dr Iain Kerr's revelations about helping patients to end their lives show a very brave and caring practitioner.

Please let us have an adult debate about assisted suicide and whether society as a whole can accept that each individual has the right to control his/her life choices, including the time and manner of departing this mortal coil.

I hope that when my time comes I will have someone like Dr Kerr to help me and I know I will be the better for it.

Joseph Fell,

2 Barcapel Avenue, Glasgow.

Alongside your report about Dr Iain Kerr, you carried an article "BMA and churches oppose law change" (The Herald, March 13).

As someone who has been involved in the physician-assisted suicide cause for some years, I have found that most ordinary doctors are not opposed to a change in the law, but do (quite rightly) want the legislature, ie the politicians, to take the lead in this matter.

Also, let us be aware that doctors as a group are not the most radical of creatures. I am old enough – just – to recall that most doctors were bitterly opposed to the proposed introduction of the National Health Service after the Second World War.

Sheila Duffy,

Friends at the End,

3 Hamilton Drive,

Glasgow.

Dr Iain Kerr's statement that he assisted in the suicides of persons in his care because he "was convinced they were in the best interests of the patient" is extremely concerning.

Healthcare professionals should never believe that a life is unworthy of life. Once an individual or society as a whole begins to believe that some persons are unworthy of life, then the equality in value and in worth of every human life is rejected – an equality that is the very basis of a civilised and compassionate society.

Dr Calum MacKellar,

Director of Research,

Scottish Council on Human Bioethics,

15 Morningside Road,

Edinburgh.