Let me declare, as parliamentarians sometimes do, an interest. I am neither a legal nor a medical expert, but I am a rather inactive member of Dignitas, a British organisation which campaigns for better-quality palliative care for terminally ill people, but also for “the option of medically assisted dying” when such people “are of sound mind and are experiencing unbearable suffering”. My only qualification is that as an economics writer I have some experience of assessing the costs and benefits of alternative courses of action. Nor am I going to detail the sufferings of terminally ill people who have lost all will to live but cannot find a dignified, legal exit.

I have nothing to say to those religious fundamentalists who consider that in no circumstances should life ever be terminated. I leave it to them to reconcile their views with their belief in a merciful God. They also need to be very sure of their convictions to impose them on the rest of humanity. But for the rest of us, some progress has been made. Attempted suicide is no longer a crime in the UK. There is also an instrument known as a Living Will under which I can declare that if I become “mentally incompetent to express my opinion”, and after two independent physicians agree my condition is irreversible, then certain kinds of treatment should not be given. The legal force of such documents is not clear, but many doctors now take them into account.