On assisted dying

It can sometimes feel as though there is an inevitability about the legalisation of ‘assisted dying’ in at least some parts of the UK.

Many media organisations like to present it that way. A poll reported on 11 March said that out of about 10,000 people, 75% supported ‘making it legal for a person to seek assisted dying’ – with 14% opposed. However, the poll was commissioned by pressure group Dignity in Dying – scarcely a neutral party – and looking on that organisation’s website it was not possible to find the detailed data from which very generalised headlines were generated.

Some of the arguments presented in this debate are facile. Writing in the Financial Times, Emily Jackson, a London School of Economics law professor, said: ‘Those in favour of legalisation do not want to make assisted dying compulsory. Rather, they think it should be available as a choice… In contrast, opponents of assisted dying do not just want to rule it out for themselves, but for everyone else as well.’ Oh, those nasty, horrible, intolerant monsters!