Thanks for your willingness to engage Andrew.

It's a shame not to get answers to my last lot of questions but it was good to get this far. I recognise that the "God hypothesis" has significant challenges, which I continue to work on, but if there is no God, then to my mind absolutely nothing makes any sense at all. I'll keep an eye out for On What Matters. Hope you find my website of some interest. And all the best to you too.

Graham

Andrew,

<<Not only may I not believe in any religion, but even if I do, I may think that my religion's ethical code should make an exception for people suffering unbearably. In our democratic society, we have come to tolerate people's right to hold and practice certain beliefs that are not shared by everyone – provided that the practice of such beliefs does not unduly harm others.>>

You present 2 of your presuppositions here: (1) A religious ethical code should make an exception for people with unbearable suffering, and (2) We can practise certain beliefs as long as they don't 'unduly harm others'. Those are your autonomous beliefs with which I disagree profoundly.

Indian-born, Canadian-American apologist, Ravi Zacharias, passed into the presence of the Lord on 19 May 2020 (aged 74) after a short battle with an aggressive cancer - sarcoma. He knew what it was to suffer. He had 2 titanium rods down his back to fix disc problems and then he died from a disease of extreme suffering. See this interview by Jew, Ben Shapiro, with Ravi: http://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=336945090569734

Therefore, I reject the assumption of the title of your article, <<Why making voluntary assisted dying legal best respects both sides of this debate>>.

I am a Christian, from the side that proclaims that it is not the right of human beings to deliberately take the life of another person, whether it's called VAD or VAS. Why? In the historically reliable Scripture the position is: 'Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter', http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+24%3A11&version=ESVUK.

The Scripture states clearly God's position, in the words of Job: “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21), http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job+1%3A21&version=ESVUK