We need to take God out of the assisted dying debate

My mother and I had a conversation about death recently. It wasn't awkward or prolonged. In fact, it was a very brief exchange in the middle of a Christmas market in Germany while we waited for our bratwurst. "I think people live too long these days," she told me. 

- KATE NG

"I don't want to live till I'm 100. And if I get sick, I don't want to get to a point where it's not worth living any more." I agreed with her, we got our bratwurst, and went about our day.

I know many people will think this is morbid, but I'm glad that my mother and I are able to have casual conversations about death. Not because life isn't precious, but because it's too precious to dance around subjects like this. We all deserve a good death, just as we deserve good lives. Why not talk about it?

So when Prue Leith announced her new Channel 4 documentary about assisted dying, I was intrigued. Assisted dying, also known as assisted suicide, is defined by the NHS as the act of "deliberately assisting a person to kill themselves" and is illegal in the UK. The British Medical Journal says it is usually used in the context of "giving assistance to die to people with long-term progressive conditions and other people who are not dying, in addition to patients with a terminal illness".

In short, if someone with a terminal illness or a condition that gets progressively worse wants to end their life, assisted dying would enable them to do so on their own terms. The alternative is to wait days, weeks, or even months to die. Leith argues that assisted dying is the most humane scenario here. I think she's absolutely right about this.