I do not understand this call for people to be helped to commit suicide - or assisted dying as it seems now to be called.

Indeed, so crackpot is the idea it makes me want to go back to the days of suicide being a criminal offence, daft as that sounds.

For surely it is the duty of everyone of us to try and talk anyone contemplating suicide out of it, not to offer them a helping hand? You might not succeed but that should not stop you from trying.

Obviously, I have much sympathy for that policeman who was blinded by a nutter with a gun, but it would surely have been been better for everyone who knew and liked him if he had got through it and was still around.

But there is no reason for everyone to now rushing go off to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.

No doctor can accurately forecast how long someone has left to live.

My cousin and her husband have just gone out the door with their little dog, who vet’s said would not last a fortnight — and that was 10 years ago

Being in permanent pain might be a reason to give up, but how many does that apply to.

Being fed up with no longer being able to play rugby or even walk down the street does not apply.

Advances in medical science come so thick and fast you can never be certain you will not be cured tomorrow — even of old age.

In fact we are getting closer and closer to living forever.

It is just that the Government do not want to foot the bill.