Mr. Andrew Copson:

There is no evidence of what we have just heard happening in any of the jurisdictions where assisted dying for incurable suffering has been legalised at all, anywhere or ever. To answer the direct question, intolerable suffering is quality of life going below what one would want for oneself, but as a consequence of an incurable physical condition, which is the important point. It is not just any suffering that a person might be experiencing on any grounds at any point in their lives but rather it is incurable suffering. That is the logical difference that the last witness was asking for when he was grilling the member of the committee on why he would persuade a friend who was depressed rather than a friend who was terminally ill not to kill themselves, where the other is allowed to kill themselves. The logical difference between the two is incurability. Incurably suffering from a physical condition that will never improve and has no prospect of improving, whether that person is terminally ill or not, is what should qualify for assisted death.

That, in my view, is what should qualify them for assisted death.