Without a right to live, a right to die will soon become a duty.

By Liz Carr.

“If you’re demented, you’re wasting people’s lives – your family’s lives – and you’re wasting the resources of the NHS.”

This was the view expressed by Baroness Warnock a few years ago on the subject of euthanasia.

Her comments exposed clearly that while the case for legalising assisted suicide is made on the grounds of the relief of unbearable suffering, it will open the door to a new duty to die – getting rid of the inconvenient – the old, the incontinent, the expensive.