Something striking is going on when the British Humanist Association articulates the instincts of religious believers better than their own spiritual leaders manage to do.
Yesterday the national debate on assisted dying reached the Court of Appeal. Paul Lamb, who was almost completely paralysed in a car accident, another man identified only as Martin and the widow of locked-in syndrome sufferer Tony Nicklinson, whose case hit the headlines last year, are arguing that doctors should be allowed to assist mentally competent patients to end their own lives. As the law stands, such a doctor (or a relative) risks being charged with murder and the mandatory life sentence that follows conviction. Some indication of the importance being attached to this case may be gleaned from the fact that the Lord Chief Justice and the Master of the Rolls – the most senior judges in the land – are both hearing it.
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