THE Commandment "Thou shalt not kill" (and that includes assisted suicide) seems to have trumped all recent attempts to have assisted suicide legalised ("The right to die is the last human rights battle", The Herald, July 9, and Letters, July 10).

Could I draw attention to the passage in John's Gospel, "Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends"?

On March 16 or 17, 1912, after weeks of intense suffering from frostbite, and aware that he was slowing Scott's polar party's journey to safety, Laurence Oates left the shelter of their tent, saying: "I may be some time." His comrades tried to dissuade him, all tacitly aware that he did not intend to return (they had previously cared for Edgar Evans until he died of natural causes).

I have read no condemnation of Oates for this. Indeed, those searching for Scott's party found Oates's sleeping bag and left a memorial at the location, "Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman".

I suspect that a significant number of those wishing this change in the law hope to avoid becoming a heavy and exhausting burden on their family, friends and other carers.

Clive McDonald, Cambuslang.