Mr. Andrew Copson:

I will answer the factual question on the views of humanists first. It is nice to see the views of humanists taken so seriously. I believe I am right in saying that the last poll in the UK showed that more than 96% of humanists supported assisted dying. That obviously implies that 4% of humanists are unsure. All humanist organisations in every country, apart from one where things are different for unrelated political reasons, support assisted dying. As I said at the beginning, my own organisation, Humanists UK, has supported assisted dying since the 1920s, for almost 100 years. It is, therefore, a firm and settled conclusion. Having said that, other humanist opinions are available but they are minority opinions. I disagree with the premises of all the Senator's questions but I cannot hope to address them in the limited time I have. Some people say that being a burden to others is a factor influencing their choice of an assisted death but the data show that this is one of a long list of reasons and that it usually comes fairly far down on that list. In addition, is there actually anything wrong with that being part of a person's complicated decision process? I would not want to be a burden to my family and that would be my choice. There is nothing wrong with that if it is part of a person's complicated range of reasons.

I do not believe access to palliative care can be dismissed as cavalierly as the Senator has done. The evidence is very clear that there is increased access to palliative care, that people take advantage of it and that the great majority of people who have assisted deaths have had access to very good and world-beating palliative care. The Senator's dismissal is, therefore, completely irrelevant.