Do We Have the Right to Die?

byLady Hale, Rowan Williams

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Two leading thinkers present alternative answers to one of the most difficult and divisive questions of our times: do we have the right to die?

As pressure grows to legalise assisted dying in the United Kingdom, and reform moves onto the political agenda, public opinion remains deeply divided. For those who feel unsure or undecided, this book offers clarity rather than slogans, illuminating the ethical and legal fault lines at the heart of the debate: between autonomy and safety; between personal choice and collective responsibility.

Lady Hale, former President of the Supreme Court, argues that everyone should have the freedom to decide the time and manner of their own death. Drawing on real cases from around the world, she explores how the law could establish effective safeguards, while preserving an individual’s right to decide for themselves when their suffering becomes unbearable. Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, sits in opposition, contending that no such right can ever be absolute, or unqualified. He raises moral and practical concerns about the protection of vulnerable communities, especially those living with disabilities, the pressures facing an already overstretched NHS and the risk that assisted dying could become a substitute for properly funded palliative care.

Both acknowledge that the alleviation of pain is a noble endeavour but differ as to whether it should amount to a legal obligation on the state — and diverge on the risks such an obligation might pose to others, particularly the most vulnerable. Their essays turn on the questions and decisions we all must face: who should be eligible for an euthanasia programme; how decisions would be authorised; who should deliver assistance; and what modern medicine could, and should, provide.

Moving beyond division, both authors confront a deeper challenge: how a public healthcare system can universally uphold dignity, and what it would truly mean to offer us all what we profoundly deserve – a good death.

About Lady Hale

Brenda Hale, Rt Hon the Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE, was born in Yorkshire and studied Law at Girton College, Cambridge. She was called to the Bar in 1969 and spent almost twenty years in academia whilst also practising as a barrister for a short time.

In 1984, Lady Hale became the first woman and the youngest person to be appointed to the Law Commission, where she oversaw critical reforms in family law and mental disability law. She also began sitting as a part time judge, was appointed a QC in 1989, and became a full time judge in the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales in 1994.

She was the first and only woman to become a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary, joining the appellate committee of the House of Lords in 2004, when it was still the top court for the whole United Kingdom. She was the first woman to serve on the newly created Supreme Court, was appointed Deputy President in 2013, and its President from 2017 to 2020.

She lives in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

She is the author of the acclaimed memoir Spider Woman and With the Law On Our Side.
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