Parliament will be discussing a new Bill on Assisted Dying as the Senedd has already done. I welcome this. I read the experiences of Sharon Johnston who travelled to Switzerland to the Dignitas clinic with the help of her friend Sue Lawford, and Louisa Eastland’s story who would like to have a dignified death in her own garden, and found their experiences deeply upsetting. I read the letter in the Cambrian News from Ruthie and Keith Nixon who are clearly opposed to people like Louisa having such a choice. They warned of the slippery slope and even brought murderers like Shipman and Letby into their argument. Another letter followed by Bob Rainbow who maintains that “anyone seen as ‘valueless’ [is] euthanised; even, in extreme cases, without their permission,” referring to the Netherlands. He asks the Cambrian News to get the facts right.

I hear the Nixons’ fear regarding disabilities and Mr Rainbow’s allegations. So I’ve carried out detailed research into the situation in the Netherlands, gone straight to the original sources in Dutch, what the law allows there and how it has worked in practice for the last two decades. My conclusion is that their fears are based on misinformation.

Euthanasia is Greek for good death. I think that’s a death in which individuals have a major say. The private member’s bill proposed by MP Kim Leadbeater doesn’t come close to my ideal law. We expect our vets to carry out ‘humane’ euthanasia on our pets. I don’t believe in a god who gives life and takes it away. I regard humans as animals, part of nature in which life and death are inseparable. As humans we deserve a good death too. What follows is the true picture in the Netherlands.

My brother-in-law asked to be euthanised six years ago. He was granted his wish and died in his own bed with my sister and his children by his side. His unbearable suffering came to an end but the journey to receive his good death wasn’t straightforward. No patient has the right to euthanasia. No doctor can be made to participate. Maybe their own religion doesn’t allow it. A GP can send a patient to a Euthanasia Expert Centre. Most GPs get no more than one request every five years.

For euthanasia to take place six criteria have to be fulfilled. Firstly, the wish has to come from the patient to their own GP. Any whiff of discussion/pressure from family or friends and the road to euthanasia is closed. Secondly, the unbearable suffering has to be such that there’s no end in sight, meaning that nothing medically can be done to cure or ease the illness, or no medication can lessen the suffering. This is based upon the patient’s own experience. Thirdly, the patient needs to have all the information and the GP needs to be sure the patient fully understands. Fourthly, there has to be no other reasonable solution. The GP has to discuss the alternatives but the patient doesn’t have to try all these. Fifthly, the GP has to consult an independent doctor who needs to visit the patient and judge that the GP has stuck to the considerably strict rules. Lastly, the GP has to carry out the euthanasia – or give the medicine should the patient wish to take it themselves – according to these very strict rules. Long prison sentences loom for those doctors who break the law.

Only 4.5 per cent of total deaths recorded in 2021 were due to euthanasia, most because of cancer, lung and heart disease and the majority of patients were well over 60 years old. All facts!