IN TODAY'S offering, "A time when euthanasia can be right" (March 29), Harry Reid has produced a piece filled with inconsistency, false logic and assertion dressed up as fact.

If by euthanasia Harry Reid means "ending medication" then the case of Terri Schiavo (pictured) is not by his definition euthanasia. Here, food and water are being withdrawn, not medication.

False logic, first example: if you withdraw food and water from a person - and, most especially, a frail person, a person incapable of feeding her/himself, whether or not that person is in a persistent vegetative state - there can be but one outcome. That person will die as a direct result of what you have chosen not to do. That is, you are not allowing that person to die, you are actively killing by inaction.

And this is far from merely or simply allowing someone to die by withdrawal of medical expertise.

False logic, second example: there is no utilitarian argument in favour of euthanasia in cases of persistent vegetative state on the basis that it would free-up much-needed medical and nursing staff and scarce hospital beds, equipment and other resources.

The long-term palliative care required in these circumstances is almost invariably provided in charitable hospices by staff dedicated solely to this and similar care in extremis.

Assertion dressed up as fact: "They (the Schindlers) are being backed by some pretty disgusting people."

Opinions are free, facts are sacred (C P Scott). Give your readers the facts and let us decide for ourselves.

Hugh McLoughlin, 24 Russell Street, Mossend, Bellshill.

HARRY REID'S piece today falls at almost the first fence. He draws a distinction between killing and allowing to die. Oh, really.

My OED defines euthanasia as the painless killing of a patient and I prefer the honesty of that. Mrs Schiavo's tube was her means of feeding so is Harry Reid arguing that deprivation of food does not constitute killing?

Perhaps we should revisit history and consider issuing pardons to commandants of German and Japanese prisons and concentration camps who were convicted of starving people to death.

Bill Waddell, 34 Ash Road, Cumbernauld.