THE Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill is once more about to be scrutinised by the Scottish Parliament ("Campaigners raise further fears over safety of assisted dying legislation", The Herald, September 30). For MSPs who may be undecided on this issue, may I recommend a trip, should they have time and space, to Berlin, specifically to Herbert von Karajan Strasse, just off Tiergarten Strasse. In front of Philharmonie Halle, home of the Berlin Philharmonic, there is a series of exhibits relating to Aktion T4, or Aktion Tiergarten 4, a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany.

In a note dated September 1, 1939, the Führer entrusted the medical profession with the responsibility to identify patients, both children and adults, “after a most critical diagnosis, on the basis of human judgment”, who were incurable, and to grant them “mercy death” (Gnadentod). Conditions considered incurable included schizophrenia, epilepsy, Huntingdon’s Chorea, “imbecility”, chronic alcoholism, Down syndrome, microcephaly, hydrocephaly, spasticity, and paralysis.

Now it is perfectly true that Aktion T4, and the Assisted Dying Bill are radically different in one respect: assisted dying is voluntary, but the Nazi euthanasia programme was compulsory. But these two programmes do share one common feature. They are both clandestine. Children were removed to “Special Sections” and gassed. The cause of death was recorded as “pneumonia”. Buried away in Paragraph 17 of the Assisted Dying Bill, believe it or not, is this extraordinary statement: "For the purposes of section 24 (certificate of cause of death) of the Registration of Births, Deaths, and Marriages (Scotland) Act 1965, the terminal illness involved is to be recorded as the disease or condition directly leading to their death (rather than the approved substance provided to them by virtue of section 15)."

In other words, MSPs will make, remotely, a pathophysiological diagnosis that was not the patient’s cause of death and, in the normal course of events, might never have been the patient’s cause of death. How dare they?

There are some people who believe - or say they do - that assisted dying is coming, is inevitable, and like a tidal wave, cannot be stopped. Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen; Let them come to Berlin.

Dr Hamish Maclaren, Stirling.

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Gulls are a menace

ON reading Mark Smith's column about gulls ("Everyone calm down: Gulls are not the threat you believe them to be", The Herald, September 28), I thought "what planet are you on?" Gulls are a menace.

He writes: "'People should also use their common sense when the gulls are nesting." Why? Let them nest on sea cliffs, not in residential neighbourhoods.

Some personal experiences:

• On the seafront in Oban a wee lassie dropped a bit of her sandwich and in a instant, all the kids were screaming in terror as a horde of gulls fight and scramble all over the pavement trying to grab what they can.

• I was sitting at a table in an outside café on the south coast near Portsmouth, when a lady was served a fish supper. As she turned to get her purse from her bag, a gull swooped onto the table, grabbed the fish and flew off, scattering everything off the table. It was quite frightening. These are surprisingly large birds.

• With my granddaughter on Ayr seafront: she went along to the ice-cream van, and was leaving with her cone when a gull swooped down and took it right out of her hand. What a fright she got. All tears.

Here in Maryburgh, we are pestered with gulls nesting behind chimney stacks on houses. We are all wakened at about six every morning with their screeching. When the chicks hatch the gulls start to dive-bomb you, thinking that you are a menace. They swoop down and empty their bowels on you. I have pestered Highland Council to do something but hey, they won't even empty the gullies or sweep the street when you ask them.

I have to admit that some neighbours of mine have been seen feeding them, and I have remonstrated with them when I found out.

Let's have no more drivel about seagulls. They're vermin.

Ian McDonald, Maryburgh.

• MARK Smith's article in support of gulls was very welcome. But for balance it should perhaps have been accompanied by Brian McCabe's brilliant poem, Seagull. It should be on all school curriculums.

"We are the dawn marauders.

We prey on pizza. We kill kebabs.

We mug thrushes for bread crusts

with a snap of our big bent beaks.

We drum the worms from the ground

with the stamp of our wide webbed feet.

We spread out, cover the area -

like cops looking for the body of a murdered fish supper.

Here we go with our hooligan yells,

wild with gluttony, sharp with starvation.

Here we go bungee-jumping on the wind,

charging from the cold sea of our birth.

This is invasion. This is occupation.

Our flags are black, white and grey.

Our wing-stripes are our rank.

No sun can match the brazen colour of our mad yellow eyes.

We are the seagulls

We are the people."

Isobel Lindsay, Biggar.

Should we crack down on gulls in our towns and cities?Should we crack down on gulls in our towns and cities? (Image: Newsquest)

Putting Glasgow to shame

RECENTLY I was on a break to Valencia and Madrid. We were so impressed by both the cities. All those buildings were well preserved. The roads and pavements were maintained to a high standard. No litter or graffiti. No derelict shops.

Valencia has a 4km park and museum area that runs along a diverted river bed. There are many cycling and walking paths through beautiful park areas, all well cared for. Compare this with Glasgow. Apparently we can’t even preserve a small number of historic lampposts that were removed from a conservation area last November. Where has Glasgow gone wrong and how can it be improved?

Gwen Marriott, Glasgow.

Byres Road better than Oxford Street

MARRIED to a Glasgow lass, this southern Englishman does know Byres Road ("Byres Road has a message for the future of Glasgow. The problem is: are we listening?", The Herald, September 30). Compared with other noted streets, it has done better than many. Do not go to Oxford Street for shopping if in London. It is a complete tip, shabby and full of tat and crime. The same is true of legions of our town and city centres.

Dr N P Hudd, Tenterden, Kent.