Thou shalt not kill but need not strive, expensively, to keep alive

Tory party calls for the resignation of Anna Soubry, after her statement about assisted suicide, have been half-hearted to say the least. New Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that he would not appreciate ‘attention-seeking’ by members of his Ministerial team.

Of course the assisted, or otherwise, suicide of very ill people who are a drain on NHS resources would suit David Cameron very well. And this is what worries me about any attempt to change the law. It's only a short step from legalising suicide to actively encouraging it when certain criteria are encountered. And with Cameron those criteria are more likely to be financial than any other.

Don't get me wrong - I cannot imagine anything worse than waking up unable to move my limbs or communicate in any normal way. Locked-in syndrome would literally be a living hell and I would appreciate the means to end it as quickly as possible. So I have infinite sympathy for anyone in that situation.

But I could never approve of the state having any involvement in euthenasia partly because I just do not trust it and partly for moral reasons. If something is legalised the next logical step would be to oblige the NHS to provide it on request. And I just don't think it can ever be right to ask one human being to kill another in cold blood. It's pretty much the same argument that I have against the death penalty.

I don't know what the answer is but I certainly don't want Cameron or politicians to be any part of the solution.