We don’t encourage suicide, so why should we assist it?
As I posted last week , MPs are preparing to consider a private member’s bill to license what is being euphemistically called ‘assisted dying’. Lord Alton of Liverpool, a life peer in the House of Lords and vocal critic of assisted dying, has written an excellent article in The Spectator which puts the question, if we don’t encourage suicide, why should we assist it? Lord Alton asserts that the correct attitude to suicide is to treat the symptoms; to cure the depression, not help the potential suicide carry through their intention. In 2006, compiling the available evidence, the Royal College of Psychiatrists advised that “ many doctors do not recognise depression or know how to assess for its presence in terminally ill patients .” The decision to end one’s life is the biggest decision anyone can take, yet the proponents of assisted dying legislation have not explained how a doctor should go about assessing mental capacity for suicide. In the general population, s...