WHILE we found Silent Witness on BBC1 excellent as always, I do wonder if the scriptwriters for a recent episode - concerning a scandal in two care homes where a doctor and male nurse were euthanising residents in return for payment from relatives - have ever had a loved one of a great age incarcerated in a care home.

My mother is 96, frail, unable to walk unaided, has vascular dementia and a memory span of about two minutes, is almost totally deaf, can’t see very well, has all her personal care taken care of by the wonderfully caring staff, and hasn’t a clue where she is.

She has totally lost her dignity and quality of life - and she loathes it. She is, however, still perfectly capable of lucid and sensible speech.

There isn’t a day when I visit her when she doesn’t: 1) ask me when I think she might die 2) say that she’s tired, has had enough and it’s time that she departed the mortal coil.

According to each and every one of my friends who have an elderly relative in the same situation, this plea is totally across the board.

I love my mother very much, and have no interest in her money quite frankly - but I do have a great interest in her happiness and welfare.

My mother is probably the brightest bulb in the pack as far as the other residents are concerned.

Despite superb efforts of the care home to make life as interesting and stimulating as possible, by way of singing, spa days, good food, days out, my mother has largely lost interest in life. She is confused and sad for most of the time, and if I could pop a pill into her cocoa and see her off, I would do so.

I would then gladly donate the rest of her capital to a needy charity.

At the end of the day this has nothing to do with money, but everything to do with personal dignity and quality of life.

The life of a frail, deaf, visually impaired, dotty and incontinent geriatric, or someone who has had a severe stroke or has Motor Neurone Disease, simply cannot be compared to those who are disabled, but who are able to speak, feed themselves, enjoy food, enjoy life, hold down a job, travel, get of the house, read, watch tv, listen to music (or whatever their pleasure in life may be) and have choice and purpose in their life.

It’s about time that medics and, in my opinion, the well-meaning but pontificating ignoramuses who are against euthanasia, understood the difference, and that includes those sitting in the House of Commons, the House of Lords and the scriptwriters of dramas.

I suspect many doctors do understand and support euthanasia, but they are, of course, simply too scared to stand up and say so, much less do anything about it.

I hope to goodness that I pop my clogs well before I reach the stage of incarceration in a care home. I, like many people, believe in God, and I attend church, but I know that the God that I believe in would not wish this type of suffering on anyone.

In writing this I would like to make a personal tribute to the carers, nurses, and staff in Hollow Oak Care Home in Haverthwaite. They carry out daily routine tasks which, to 99 per cent of the population, would at least be difficult but more likely abhorrent, and they do so with good humour and incredibly sincere kindness.

Working round the clock, they never go on strike, moan about their shifts or their pay. My mother, I and our family are indebted to them for their dedication and wonderful care.

Louise Broughton

Bowness