Assisted dying's time will come
JUST as it did with the campaign to allow legal abortions, the mood is changing over assisted dying.
More than 20 years ago when pioneering deputies raised the matter in the States, they would have done so in the almost certain knowledge that they weren’t going to make any significant progress. They were right.
But maybe that sowed the seed for the momentum for change which has ticked around. Sometimes from Guernsey, sometimes from elsewhere.
Currently Jersey and the Isle of Man are recognised as leading the way, even for the UK – but that is no bad thing.
Our innate conservatism meant that Guernsey was never going to be in the vanguard of assisted dying.
But now two opinion polls – one relatively scientific, the other on Facebook, so take that at face value – are providing very similar feedback that the mood is turning.
A majority of islanders in one of the surveys have said they don’t think it’s important for Guernsey merely to follow what the UK does.
Meanwhile a House of Commons select committee is particularly concerned that some areas of the British Isles will be legalising assisted dying while others do not.
The time will come for assisted dying to be made legal.
Don’t expect Guernsey to be first. But at some point, it will happen.