I was present tonight at an excellent session on assisted suicide led by Stephen Hutchison and Jamie Grant. I was especially struck by the following quote from Lord Carlile:
"Laws aren't like precision-guided missiles. You can't draft them in the comfort of a Westminster chamber and then just 'fire and forget'. Once they are on the statute book they have a habit of causing collateral damage well beyond the intended target area. With something as fundamental — and as crucially important as the safety of us all — as the law on murder, you need to be quite sure that the law is defective and needs fixing, and that the provisions you are making are robust enough to stand up to the rough and tumble of the real world. In real life we have to design laws which protect the greatest number of people, and especially the vulnerable members of society. And that is what the law as it stands does."
I find it striking that around two thirds of the public are in favour of assisted suicide while two thirds of the medical profession polled are against. It would seem that the very real prospect of being involved in such a process is very problematic for the majority of doctors. For more information on this very emotive issue, you can go to Care not Killing here.
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