Mr. Don Wycherly:

Right, let us get on with it then. Context and conflict, similar to assisted dying and assisted living, is the fulcrum that swivels regarding who lives and who dies. The task here today is to determine whether people should have a statutory right to assisted dying.

Safeguarding is the intent to protect yet there is a sense that safeguarding is flimsy because it can never be human-proofed. In the war of words and diverse ideologies, ethics, politics and values become abstract and academic. The lived reality of lives that are often considered less, different and troublesome become void of agency. The perception of illness and disability is understood as loss of dignity and loss of agency and bodily integrity, and it is presented as the loss of personhood. This issue is of huge concern and relevance to disabled people. We need to be central in this shaping of legislation.

How am I doing?