The Spectator’s Notes | 15 October 2005

The Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill, currently before Parliament, is often discussed in terms of absolute morality. It can never be right to take a life, says one side. The right to choose extends to the right to choose to die, says the other. I wish more attention focused on a prudential argument about an underlying tendency of human nature. People have a very strong desire for the old to hurry up and die. Sometimes this is straightforward greed for their money and possessions; sometimes the Darwinian impatience of the young to get more power and destroy what is unproductive; sometimes our selfish, though natural, dislike of caring for the decrepit. To guard against these tendencies, civilisations have built up strong taboos which accord old people respect and make children and grandchildren feel that they should look after those who once looked after them: their life is valued precisely because it is fragile.