Medical advances have resulted in all the centenarians feted on your pages. Apart from tragic accidental and homicidal deaths, nowhere do I read that people are dying agonising "undignified" deaths at the hands of heartless doctors and nurses.

What I do read is a lot of ignorant, demeaning statements from politicians such as the member for Murray, Helen Dalton. People are being kept on and on when all they really want is to die. (The Border Mail, December 14).

How must octogenarians have felt reading that? Her attitude to lives she deems devoid of value is frightening.

And her vague claims that "in palliative care cases it's almost going on anyway" is an insult to doctors and nurses in this speciality. If she has suspicions that there has been some kind of illegal act, then I ask, did she report them to the police?

Typically, Dying with Dignity spokespersons like Sharon Potocnik (The Border Mail, December 29) claim surveys show "strong support for 'assisted dying' to be made legal " without identifying one survey or the questions asked. People do need "assistance" in their dying days. Not killing.

That should not be too difficult for local Albury MP Justin Clancy to enunciate. When all the verbal engineering of these death peddlers is stripped away, for any government whose first responsibility is to protect human life, it is simple. We just don't kill people.

Fair dinkum. Victorian Police are reportedly being forced to sleep in tents because of a shortage of commercial accommodation in our border areas.

It begs the question as to why locals have not seen fit to open their hearts and hearths to men and women who are there for one reason only - to protect the public (health) interest.

IN OTHER NEWS:

It is incomprehensible that there are not some vacant rooms on private properties in the areas concerned.

Even access to a farm shed or barn would be more acceptable than being forced to live in a tent!

A few years ago my elderly generational-farmer mother propelled her wheelchair around her regional aged-care home and collected lots of signatures from other old farmers who were concerned about global warming (The Border Mail letters, December 28). I think you will find that there are a lot of farmers, both in Australia and overseas, who are pretty worried about the changes they see in the climate.

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