Ignore the reactionaries who oppose assisted dying

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Matthew Parris has narrated this article for you to listen to.

‘If I’d known where it would take me I might never have started.’ This need not be an expression of regret. There are journeys where the final destination is best hidden from the traveller, due to the psychological difficulty he may have in embracing the future until we’re nearly there. This column will move on to assisted dying, but I start with a look back at the fight for equal rights for same-sex couples. I played a minor part in this.

Ever since the 1950s, brave souls – at first just a few – fought for the repeal of 19th-century laws criminalising male homosexual behaviour. They were joined by others, finally even politicians. In 1967, Roy Jenkins’s Sexual Offences Bill passed parliament, decriminalising private homosexual acts between men aged 21 and over.