Editorial: The phrase assisted dying is a misleading one

​Assisted dying is illegal across the British Isles. But there are multiple moves to change that.

There is a bill to introduce assisted dying in Scotland. There are proposals to make it legal in the Republic of Ireland, in Jersey and in the Isle of Man. And various politicians and other voices have called for the same in Northern Ireland.

This is a thorny legal and moral area. Barely anyone would want a person at the end of their life to endure physical agony if their life is certainly coming to an end.

But there is an old maxim: hard cases make bad law. In other words, we should not make policy based on extreme scenarios.

Consider, for example, how the abortion debate in Northern Ireland changed so quickly. Only a few years ago terminations were illegal in most scenarios in the province, leading to a clamour for exemptions in cases of so-called fatal foetal abnormality and other highly unusual situations that represent only a tiny percentage of pregnancies. This was then swept aside in a reform that led to some of the most liberal abortion laws on these islands, including abortion on demand (something even England technically does not have, but instead has only in practice).

In Scotland campaigners opposed to introducing assisted dying in Scotland say changing the law would “give rise to profound injustices”. The Better Way group has also raised concerns that a bill in the Scottish parliament could allow sufferers of the eating disorder anorexia and even some disabled people to request an assisted death given the very broad definition of terminal illness.

This debate is coming to Northern Ireland. There is widespread confusion about the term assisted dying, which sounds so benign. In fact it is bringing forward death. It is not withholding treatment that is futile in someone who is dying but suffering.