Whose life is it anyway?

Today, we will know whether Kim Leadbeater's bill to emancipate all those who want the right to die with dignity has succeeded.

I doubt she will win the day because in the UK, there are far too many people who are entitled, arrogant and believe they have a right to interfere in every aspect of somebody else's life - against their will. One wonders if they would feel the same if somebody did the same to them.

I saw Brian Clark's stage play "Who's life is it anyway?" (originally staged in 1972) when I was in my mid-teens. It had the most profound effect on me. I remember it vividly now 50 years later. It is fundamentally about the rights of the individual, against the state's (immoral and incorrect) belief that they have the right to interfere in every part of our lives.

People will dress this up in a million ways to suit their own prejudice. They'll use religious views - their opinion is based on what they think their God, who may or may not exist, tells them to do - they aren't allowed to think for themselves - I leave to you to decide whether you think it is acceptable that we permit people who cede responsibility for decision making/ developing their own moral positions should be allowed to have any say in the debate.

They'll say people will be coerced - what like that's not happening now? Get real!

They say it will open the floodgates - Really? Like you think that there are not currently hundreds of people a year who decide to end their own lives and whose deaths are recorded as "accidental overdose" or "unexpected heart attack"? You never hear of them because there's never enough evidence either way to justify a charge and certainly not enough to justify a prosecution. All this bill will do is bring it some dignity and peace to those who are left behind.

They say it will be legalised murder - Nonsense! The proposal allows for only the patient themselves to request it and they have to get it past a battery of doctors, lawyers and other safeguards? Legalised murder? Get over yourself !

They say it will place too big a burden on the NHS. Just stop and think about that for second. What they are actually saying here is that money is the deciding factor when we determine whether you can die in dignity or in agonised squalor. Why are they are happy to fund IVF treatment but do not extend the same courtesy to those at the other end of their lives? And anyway, anyone with anything more than a single mis-firing braincell could tell you that allowing assisted dying will remove a patient who is costing a fortune in care and treatment and that assisted dying will actually have a positive effect on NHS resources.

Here is the reality my friend - Those who oppose assisted dying just want the right to interfere in your life without your consent. They want you to know that they control your life. They think you're a child, not capable of making your own decisions. It's typical nanny state stuff - "we think we know better than you and therefore we shall override your right to choose".

In the last 100 years, we have emancipated women, we have achieved equality for people of colour and we have freed gay people from the yoke of legislative oppression. It is not perfect by any means and genuine equality is still some distance away. But as a community and a country, we recognised that doing the right thing was important. And yet we still allow those who wish to die with dignity to be crushed under the weight of dogmatic oppression.

I do not tell other people how they should live their lives and yet I am compelled to accept that others will not grant me the same courtesy. They insist on involving themselves in my life against my wishes.

Whose life is it anyway? You tell me.