Lord Sumption:

The Deputy is asking me that question not in my capacity as a lawyer but rather in my capacity as a citizen. As a citizen, I do think that is the case. The amount of deprivation of liberty that is authorised in a democracy is not simply a question of health policy. Health policy certainly comes into it, but it is also a legal, constitutional, economic and education question. Above all, it is a moral question.

Weighing up all these different considerations, is necessarily a matter of political judgment. The question really is how far should one allow clinical and medical considerations to outweigh the many other factors that make up the vigour of human life in a free and open society like ours? That simply is not an issue which could currently be delegated to the scientists, even if the scientists agreed, which they do not.