The humanist case against euthanasia

This article was published in Spiked Online 17 May 2010

If you’re opposed to legalising a ‘right to die’, people assume you must be a religious crank. But not all of us are.

For me, one of the great mysteries of modern times is how the ‘right to die’ came to be seen as an important progressive cause.

It has now reached a level where if you tell someone that you have liberal instincts, humanist tendencies, and you don’t follow any religious faith, they will automatically assume that you are in favour of legalising assisted suicide. There is almost an unspoken, nudge-nudge agreement amongst a certain section of society that this is a just and righteous campaign: you read the Guardian, you shop at Waitrose, you go to the National Theatre, you support assisted dying.