Not an island
Sir: I and those with whom I live and work are all within coughing distance of Sam Leith’s ‘threshold of death’ and we need no reminders that your body is your own, because we wish to God it wasn’t (‘Last rights’, 20 April). But as it is, we owe it to that body to see the process through. My ‘going hence’ is not a private matter. I am not an island but a piece of the continent and that connection is the key to the human genius of social literacy.
We demented dodderers are an eighth age, a new demographic, practically a new species, and we bring with us new ethical dilemmas. Nevertheless, civilised society remains underpinned by the moral injunction presented by Douglas Murray to ‘choose life’, which euthanasiasts fail to appreciate. For them, society is simply a collection of autonomous individuals and death just another commodity, with we crumblies its loyal customers.
Stewart Dakers
Farnham, Surrey
On Hugh Clough
Sir: In his defence of so-called ‘assisted dying’, Sam Leith calls in support the words of the 19th-century poet Hugh Clough: ‘Thou shalt not kill/ But needst not strive/ Officiously to keep alive’ (20 April). Your literary editor seems unaware that the poem from which they are taken — ‘The Latest Decalogue’ — was a bitterly satirical account of what Clough saw as a perversion of Christian morality. Thus, another line of it reads: ‘Bear not false witness/ Let the lie/ Have time on its own wings to fly.’ Poor Clough, to be himself so perversely misrepresented.
Dominic Lawson
Dallington, East Sussex
The plan to unite Ireland
Sir: I agree with much of Liam Halligan’s analysis of the Irish government’s approach to Brexit (‘Good Friday disagreement’, 20 April). However, I think he omits an important point. Leo Varadkar is not merely attempting to derail Brexit; he is also hoping to achieve a united Ireland.
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