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Assisted Dying

I am tired of these polarised debates, I have to say. It is time that we looked at ethical, societal and practical issues in a dispassionate way. I therefore strongly support an investigation along the lines proposed by the noble Lord, Lord Warner. Let us take, for example, the issue of mental competence. I think that noble Lords will agree that the decision to die requires the highest test to be satisfied. An inquiry would allow us to define in advance how the complexities of mental competence, depressive thinking and undue influence could be assessed properly in practice. Does it not make more sense to review mental competence and the influence of mental state before the event via a safeguarded law, as opposed to afterwards via an investigation of a mercy killing and a potential prosecution? I think so. As to those who quote Martin Amis, he is as serious about killing off older people as Jonathan Swift was about boiling babies.