Being a nurse for a lifetime, I have seen death in all its colours. There is no guarantee for a peaceful death. The sick and dying person may suffer, taking along relatives who may well have miserable memories of that death forever. I do have personal experience of this and I could only feel sadness.
To have a choice, your own personal choice is our right. No one is twisting our arms. Gay marriage and abortion changed on our watch. We adjusted.
To choose when we die may be our next personal choice.
Woolly thinking
Sounds like woolly thinking to string any of the woes of the world back to the nimble-fingered Greerton yarn bombers.
A big baa of thanks from me to all who have knitted their creativity and diligence into the blanket that wraps Greerton up warm and whimsical this winter.
Tony Harvey
Gate Pa
Focus on roads
It seems to me that the ratepayers of Tauranga are asleep. Rates are going to go up 3.8 per cent this year and no one seems to take any notice.
In my view, the council just wastes money on nice-to-haves like offices, museums and spending thousands defending parking tickets using ratepayer money.
Yet we all have trouble getting to work in the morning because the roads are a disgrace.
Why aren't we spending money on roads? Look at Domain and Papamoa Beach roads -
what a disgrace.
We all would like luxuries like museums and new offices but we have to manage within our means.
(Abridged)
Dave Jennings
Papamoa
Resist extremists
Regarding the article "Doctor quits union over decision" (News, July 3) , interesting to see that a neonatal childrens' doctor has spoken out against the motion for decriminalisation of abortion passed at the recent Bournemouth meeting of the British Medical Association.
Critics say it "will open the door for abortion on demand up to birth" - exactly what Labour, the Greens and Act are planning for New Zealand.
The report indicates 20 more will cut ties with the British Medical Association, that 1500 had signed a letter warning "the decision would severely damage the reputation of the profession", that a medical consultant in Watford is quitting over his concern that the union's agenda has been "increasingly hijacked by people with more extreme views", and that a Somerset GP is quitting after 35 years.
The issue here, as with euthanasia and assisted suicide, is how far the average person will let the extremists undermine society's value of human life. Once devalued, as we see from overseas experience, the ground opens up to even greater extremes, and soon only the fit and able will be judged worthy to survive.
Don Brebner.
Otumoetai.
