MOTOR neurone disease sufferer Diane Pretty has replied to the Dorset woman who wants her legal action to fail.

The plight of Mrs Pretty, who wants her husband to be allowed to kill her, has made headlines.

She has appealed to the House of Lords to overturn a High Court decision.

As reported last week, spina bifida sufferer Alison Davis travelled to London from her Milborne St Andrew home to follow the case.

Mrs Davis said she was "terrified" that assisted euthanasia would become law, because people like her would die.

But in a letter to the Daily Echo, Mrs Pretty explained: "I do not want to die, but since I know that motor neurone disease has left me with only months to live, I have decided that I would like to choose what I feel is a dignified end.

"Unlike Alison Davis, who is disabled, I have a terminal illness and the question is not whether or not I will die, but how.

"I want to die at home with my family around me and not have to endure a long drawn-out death in a hospice or hospital, however well-meaning and caring the staff."

She pointed out that in Holland and in Oregon, where people in her position could legally choose how they died, there were safeguards to make sure that people were not depressed. Two-thirds of requests were refused.

"Any law in Britain must have the same safeguards," she said. "I am very happy for Alison that she is able to enjoy her life and only ask that she respects my feelings about my life and how I wish to end it."

Mrs Davis, who lectures in medical ethics, responded: "It's not dignified to kill somebody - what is dignified is to have access to the kind of people who can give her the peaceful death she wants. That can be at home and surrounded by her family."

Mrs Davis, who suffers excruciating pain from brittle bone disease and also has a lung disease, went through many years of depression when she actively wished to die.

"There's no safeguard that would have saved me. I had all the treatment that was possible but I still wanted to die."

The full text of Diane Pretty's letter

Dear Editor,

I have asked my husband Brian to send you this letter in reply to your article "What a waste it is to want to die" on 14th November 2001.

I do not want to die, but since I know that motor neurone disease has left me with only months to live, I have decided that I would like to choose what I feel is a dignified end. Unlike Alison Davis who is disabled, I have a terminal illness and the question is not whether or not I will die, but how.

I want to die at home with my family around me and not have to endure a long drawn-out death in a hospice or hospital, however well-meaning and caring the staff.

In your article Alison Davis says that she is "terrified" that I will win my appeal to the House of Lords. Alison says that she used to want to die, but now she has changed her mind, and that if voluntary euthanasia was legal she wouldn't be here now.

In Holland and in Oregon where people in my position can legally choose how they die, there are safeguards to make sure that people are not depressed, and so two- thirds of requests are refused.

Any law in Britain must have the same safeguards so that people who are depressed are properly treated and cared for. I am very happy for Alison that she is able to enjoy her life, and only ask that she respects my feelings about my life and how I wish to end it.

Diane and Brian Pretty, Luton, Beds.