「经济学人」The right to die

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The right to die An assisted-dying bill is again introduced to Westminster This time there is a good chance it could pass ON October 16th, on a grey morning in Westminster, a gaggle of pink-clad campaigners with placards gathered in Parliament Square. “Kim Leadbeater MP: Thank you for giving us hope,” read one sign. Later that day, Ms Leadbeater, a Labour MP, introduced a bill in the House of Commons to allow assisted dying for the terminally ill in England and Wales. Ms Leadbeater is not the first politician to propose changing the law. The first was Lord Ponsonby, whose bill on voluntary euthanasia in 1936 was supported by H.G. Wells and the Dean of St Paul’s. That bill was defeated after his fellow peers pronounced themselves unconvinced by the promise of safeguards and worried that the choice could be extended to those of unsound mind (or “imbeciles and mental defectives” in the less thoughtful language of the time). Many were bound by their religious beliefs to oppose it ………………………………