The following is a letter submitted for inclusion in this week's Isle of Man Examiner

I write to add my voice to those who would support the Assisted Dying Bill.

I am 85 years old, and, as death becomes closer, I dread the prospect of having no control over my ending.

I can contemplate only the jumble of frightening alternatives which presently face the terminally ill.

While we can control our financial affairs, through EPAs and wills, surely a modern society should allow us to do the same for the quality, dignity or timing of our death.

Circumstances differ for everyone, and nothing is ever guaranteed, but should we not begin the process of bringing order to this area of life? It is only a question of giving people a choice.

Am I alone in having been accused of incitement to murder when a loved one was in intolerable pain?

Surely we can do better than this and the medics will say that things have changed.

But shortages mean that I, and many others, have not had a regular GP for well over a year: will we be reliant on the whim of someone who does not know us?

Should the right to choose be restricted to the rich who can avail themselves of foreign clinics?

It seems to me that the safeguards embodied in the Bill should be enough to protect the vulnerable. We should understand that there are other types of vulnerability.

Name and address supplied