Lord Falconer's assisted dying bill came up in the Lords again last week. I found the print account that I read rather depressing - it making it sound as if their Lordships had spent most of the time available talking about whether the word 'suicide' should replace the word 'dying' in the title of the proposed bill. I suppose one just has to accept that in our world of representative democracy, in which I believe, one just has to put up with the sometimes tiresome discussions of one's representatives and to accept that it is unlikely that others are going to strike quite the right note about something that one cares about oneself. Rather like expecting a whisky buff to be enthusiastic about a present of whisky; one is never going to get that quite right either.
At least the proponents of the bill managed to be upbeat about its likely demise, with talk of it having got further than ever before and bringing it forward for another outing next session. Maybe sensible social legislation is speeding up with, for example, gay marriage having got through decades faster last year than gay legality fifty years ago - and maybe we will get there with this one in the next year or so.
And then I will be able to start worrying about the pace of change. It is sensible to be careful & conservative about such matters. More haste less speed and all that.
Reference 1: http://www.dignityindying.org.uk/.
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