JUSTICE

Secretary David Gauke is right to say we must ‘look again’ at the laws around assisted dying. If a patient is suffering, they should be able to die without putting their loved ones at risk of prosecution (anyone convicted of helping another person to die faces up to 14 years in jail), travelling abroad or suffering a prolonged agony at home. Medicine has taken us further than we could ever have hoped in terms of prolonging life — but what’s the good of being alive if your heart and soul are not in it?