An area Britain leads the world - and I did not know about it

You would think that whenever a country was found to be best at something it would broadcast the fact and build upon it - not Britain it seems.

I came across a fact in the most surprising of places - a commentary on the "assisted dying" bill due to be debated tomorrow http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2695185/The-assisted-dying-bill-simply-wrong-wrong-wrong-George-Carey-revealed-Mail-hes-changed-mind-right-die-A-leading-medical-voice-profoundly-disagrees.html. It turns out that Britain has the best end of life care in the world - with options for refusing ineffective treatment, psychological support, extra pain relief etc and of course the wonderful hospice movement. It is still a long long way from perfect - especially in the area of patient knowledge about how to access the palliative support. Yet it is the best.

It is significant better than countries where some form of medically assisted suicide is openly available. Shouldn't that tell us something? We have a choice to continue developing and supporting our world beating palliative care - where done properly very few people suffer distress or excessive pain - or we can switch the road of assisted dying where nobody bothers about the quality of end of life care because anyone who doesn't like it can swallow a pill and lump it. Whether they have less than 6 months to live or not.