Coronavirus can help us confront the uncomfortable truth about death

In recent years, I’ve been thinking about the right way to die, having been with my late wife Sian Busby when she was in great pain from cancer at the end of her life, and been chairman of Hospice UK, the charity which campaigns – among other things – to improve end-of-life care.

In normal times, few of us want to dwell on better or worse ways to die. But these are not normal times. The coronavirus crisis means we have to confront perhaps the hardest question any of us will ever face.

For ourselves and for those we love most dearly, if a doctor told us that our chances of survival were slim, would we prefer to be kept alive possibly for just a few days more in a painful and humiliating way, on an incubator, or would we rather die at home, with those we love?

Doctors tell me they are presenting that choice to very sick people and their families in record numbers.