Tomorrow, the House of Commons will debate Kim Leadbetter’s Bill that would allow assisted suicide in the United Kingdom for the first time. It is a continuation of an old debate over the ability of the state to take life.
This was not new, even in the 13th century, when Thomas Aquinas set out the doctrine of just war, which still underpins the international conventions surrounding conflict. He shows that there are circumstances when a state may use deadly force to protect a central interest.
This applies to capital punishment as well, but most modern states have concluded that the penalty is disproportionate to the risk, and that the level of historic error makes the death penalty unjustified. Hence, the killing of enemies of the state has become much less common in recent decades than it was in the past.
The same is not true for the approach to the innocent. As some in Parliament seek to follow other Western nations in approving state-sanctioned suicide, is this approach right in principle? And, regardless of the morality, can it be safe in practice?
Listen to this episode with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Letters from an Englishman by Jacob Rees-Mogg to listen to this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.
