Clashes over an attempt to allow the terminally ill to end their lives flared today as a bill to legalise assisted dying began its second reading in the House of Lords.
Crossbencher Lord Joffe told peers that patients should not be forced to endure unbearable pain "for the good of society as a whole" as he opened the debate on his right-to-die legislation.
But the former human rights lawyer faces a long day of hostility both outside and inside the chamber - including from the archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, who is due to speak in the marathon debate expected in the Lords today.
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Not a new issue, neither a happy issue. But it won't go away. According to various polls around 82% of UK residents are in favour. All churches are against it.
The arguments against it are mainly a religious one, we cannot go against God's will, which I might have taken seriously were not for the fact that a vast proportion of people would not reached the age of 70 without some medical intervention.
Considering that lots of medical treatments are no longer a matter of taking a couple of pills and going away but may include genetic research and transplants which might be seen as playing God, I think lots of people are already reaching a ripe old age without God's will.
In many cases, the case of ending a life will occur only when the life has been already prolonged. Part of the argument says that these days pain relief and palliative care are so good that people can tollerate a vast amount of pain.
I'm not entirely convinced that seen in a religious context prolonging a life is ok while not prolonging is not. Also I don't know whether to live totally doped with morphine or something similar is such a great life. But I think it is up to the individual to decide what quality of life they are prepared to accept.
The other argument that I have often heard is that some families will abuse the system thus getting rid of unwanted elderly people.
I think this is a bit naive, I'm sure that you can have a more foolproof system. To me euthanasia does not mean that anyone can go and kill anyone who is elderly or ill. I would definitely be against such a system.
I think the main problem at the moment is that the law is a mess:
It is unlawful to give any form of assistance to help someone to die. uthanasia - killing someone, especially to relieve suffering - is illegal in Britain. So too is assisted suicide, whereby doctors give patients drugs to kill themselves but do not administer the fatal dose. But there are grey areas and intent is the key. Doctors can accelerate death by withholding a drug - and even give a terminally ill patient large doses of drugs, such as morphine, which may shorten their life. However it is illegal for them to administer a drug specifically to hasten death.
To make the matter even more complex, the courts have given doctors the go-ahead to accelerate death in a succession of rulings on individual patients undergoing insufferable pain, but have refused to make more sweeping judgments on the grounds that this is an issue for parliament. Such inconsistencies have led to high profile appeals, such as that by motor neurone disease sufferer Diane Pretty, who unsuccessfully battled in the European court of human rights for the right to be helped to die by her husband.
