Letters: Walk a mile in my shoes and then tell me how it's going

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Regarding the ignorant and ill-informed comments made by Moira Floresta in response to the comments made by Esther Richards (February 2); there is nothing worse than those, who have not experienced a diagnosis of terminal illness, spouting their views and putting others down in the process. As someone who has received a terminal diagnosis, as an advocate for assisted dying, and as someone who has spent two years as an active advocate, actually listening to the stories from the front line from honest palliative care nurses, who dare not speak up for fear of reprisals in their workplace, my message to Moira Floresta is "Walk a mile in the shoes of Esther and myself and then come back and tell us how it's all going ..."

Assisted dying should be an adjunct to palliative care — palliative care starts (supposedly) after a terminal diagnosis and is designed — according to a palliative care nurse specialist with post-graduate qualifications in palliative care — who I interviewed recently — to provide comfort, support and to best alleviate symptoms and side-effects. However, that cannot always be achieved with many forms of cancer and other diseases. That's when the individual should have the voluntary option of avoiding a prolonged, painful and horrific end of life — the type many of us have witnessed through our experience of nursing our own loved ones.Tanya Battel, Brisbane

Polar opposites

Correspondent Moira Floresta rightly points out that euthanasia and palliative care are not complementary (as some claim) but rather "polar opposites".

I would add that euthanasia advocates who claim that it is used only when palliative care is ineffective are not even sincere. If this was a serious element of eligibility, the End of Life Choice Act would say so: it doesn't.

These advocates just want what they want, come what may.
Gavan O'Farrell, Lower Hutt

No one else's choice

I am astonished by those who rail against the End of Life Choice legislation. If I am terminally ill, what gives society the right to prolong my life against my will? If you don't want to choose the time and method of your own death then don't. But understand that I don't willingly give you or society that power over me.
My life. My death. My choice.
Andrew Tichbon, Greenbay

All about winning

The vote to acquit President Trump typifies the politics of today. Having made an oath to be impartial, Republican senators voted based on their politics only. Mitt Romney was the only dissenter and this was probably based on his goal to replace Trump one day. This sort of vile cynicism is the reason that biased news agencies such as Sky and Fox News get away with twisting news to suit their right-wing narrative. Unfortunately this has made the world more divisive and dangerous than in the past. In days by gone, Democrat and House Speaker Tip O'Neill used to play golf with Republican President Ronald Reagan. These days the gloves are off and we all heard Trump supporters' "lock her up" chant regarding Hilary Clinton.

Today politics are all about winning, but how you play the game has fewer rules. Unfortunately the right tend to play dirtier. As Bill Maher says, the left always seem " ... to bring a notion to a gun fight".

Our Prime Minister says her campaign will be "... positive, factual and robust". If it is, I hope we all appreciate that.
Niall Robertson, Balmoral

Not just roads

Come on, Heather. You write ("Ardern's quiet secret weapon", February 2) as though, like the characters in the Wizard of Oz, where the end of the yellow brick road promised nirvana, getting roads built is all that voters care about. This is not to deny that the need for a decent roading system is long overdue, however equally important are housing, poverty, drug abuse, the rise of gangs ... the list goes on. In addition to roads we must talk about what really matters.
Glennys Adams, Oneroa