I would say that overall I am more suspicious of “assisted dying” policies than are many of my libertarian friends. I am fine with legalizing suicide, but I get nervous when a state — especially a less than fully competent, fiscally strapped state — enters the picture with so much influence over the proceedings. In the longer term, no matter how the legislation is initially written, what will be the incentives of that state? What will be the incentives of family members and legal guardians?
That said, I do recognize that as medical technology and life-saving techniques advance, something has to give. We can’t just keep tens of millions of people hooked up to life support for decades.
I do not have any “top down” way of resolving all of the difficult moral and practical issues here. I will simply note that the returns to federalism have risen. Different American states can try out different policies, as indeed they do, and we can see what is happening and judge accordingly.
I believe this point remains underrated. As technology advances, and the world changes more rapidly, the returns to federalism rise. We are coming off a long period when the returns to federalism were relatively low.
I am more optimistic about England than many people, but this is one of my worries. Devolution doesn’t quite do the same, but rather means that for anything England does, two other polities are likely to choose something even worse.
The post Assisted dying in the UK appeared first on Marginal REVOLUTION.