Sir, Ken Weavers (Letters, May 26) explains how the present law forbidding a doctor from helping a requesting patient to have a mercifully shortened death fits in well with his beliefs and preferences.

But what about those of us 80 per cent of the UK public who would like such an option as we near the end of our lives?

Surely the law should cater for all of us when it comes to making such basic personal decisions.

Those whose religious beliefs forbade it could suffer on. The rest of us would be able to approach our doctors for help, without fear of making them criminals. After the necessary checks they could prescribe the drugs for us to have a peaceful end when we knew our time had come. It was a shocking thing that the leaders of the four major religions in this country campaigned to stop this law reform even being debated in the House of Lords.

Jean Davies, Grandpont