Last week, the press reported the death of Nan Maitland, who took her own life at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland. Mrs Maitland was 84 years old and suffering from arthritis, but she was not terminally ill.
Her death re-opened the debate on assisted suicide and the ‘right to die’ and the national press has published many letters on both sides of the debate.
One such letter in the Sunday Times is of particular interest to lingusists:
It is, of course, possible that Ms MacLeod meant something entirely different, and perhaps her words were crudely edited by the newspaper. However, the most obvious interpretation of the above letter is rather shocking: “If I was you, I would kill myself.”