THERE is, at the moment, tremendous pressure to legalise euthanasia, or 'assisted suicide', with many heart-rending stories used to back up this demand.

Recently, there was a salutary example where a husband tried to assist his wife in her distress: the effort was unsuccessful and when the wife recovered they discovered that she was mightily relieved and looked forward to further life! This is not the only example.

There are terrible dangers in legalising euthanasia and all assurances from the proponents that there would be adequate safe-guards should not be accepted.

The Abortion Act of 1967 was supposed to incorporate proper safeguards so that terminations would be legal under strict conditions; that it would not be 'abortion on demand'.

As everyone knows these so-called safeguards are worthless and the intentions of the Act have suffered wholesale abuse.

The recent revelations about the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (a publicly funded 'charity' would you believe) shows we are near to sanctioned infanticide.

All attempts to reform the Act to get back to the original intentions have been frustrated by officialdom. The same would happen with euthanasia.

Dr J Findlater, Silverdale.