Life and death

I had been asked to sum up on behalf of the Liberal Democrats on a debate called "End of Life Care" initiated by Frank Field. It was a difficult debate to prepare for as I was not sure whether it would deal with palliative care or some of the thornier issues around physician assisted death. It was actually deeper and more philosophical than that and I was interested to note that Frank Field had actually wanted a debate on "dying" but it had been renamed. Evan Harris suggested that this was because the debate had to reflect some area of Government responsibility and dying was something that the Government could not be held responsible for! No one confirmed or denied this but it is certainly the case that death is the last taboo and I will be rereading the debate tomorrow to try and reflect more deeply on some of the issues raised. I will try to update a link when Hansard is printed.