Your articles by Kathryn Mannix (“Go gently into that good night”, 5 September) and Phil McCarthy (“Life or death: the doctor’s dilemma”, 5 September) on the assisted dying debate run the risk of leaving key questions unanswered. Mannix gives the impression that palliative care is the answer to everything. Sadly there are a small number of cases in which no combination of drugs can put an end to excruciating pain, a situation that can lead to weeks of torment for patient and family alike. McCarthy cites the case of an elderly man diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer. “He would have met the Assisted Dying Bill criteria,” he says. But he goes on to say that “years later he is still playing golf”. One can infer from this that at no p