We are a nation of hypocrites

When a loved-one is sick in hospital, no one protests when we say their death would be a ‘merciful release’.

When we are told ‘there’s nothing more that can be done’, we whisper to our loved-one that we give them our permission ‘to go’, even though medicine can, and does, keep people alive long past their natural end.

We’ve all wept beside a coffin and consoled ourselves that the deceased was better off and wouldn’t have wanted to survive without quality of life.