Euthanasia: dilemma of a community. The William Arnold Conolly Oration

A good death properly understood is a right goal in medical treatment. Dying should not be needlessly prolonged; pain should be alleviated wherever possible; there should be care given to the whole person, attending to spiritual and psychological as well as physical needs; people should be allowed to die at the right time and in the right way; and we should avoid the short cuts that might seem of immediate advantage to the patients but may have harmful long-term consequences for them, their family, and their wider community. Acceptance of the principle of active euthanasia would, I believe, undermine some basic values on which our community is built. I end with a quotation whose source I do not know but which sounds the right note: "Seek not to end the living of the dying but rather to tend the dying in their living."