U.K. Moves To Ban Tobacco and To Legalize Assisted Dying

The irony has so far been little remarked upon

[The Editors is called The Editors, plural, not The Editor, singular, for a reason. When I launched it, a shrewd friend advised, “it can’t just be you.” I’m delighted to start introducing some additional voices. Today’s comes from Michael Mosbacher, who is associate comment editor at London’s Daily Telegraph. He is a past editor of Standpoint and The Critic, having co-founded both British magazines.—Ira Stoll.]

The House of Commons. Photo credit: The House of Commons.

Britain’s House of Commons has had two unusual and historic votes this past week. On Tuesday it voted to ban anyone now aged 15 and under from ever buying tobacco. The age restriction on purchasing cigarettes will go up each year to keep the product just out of reach. When the last person born in 2008 dies, tobacco will be completely illegal.

It will be the most draconian anti-smoking measure in the world. It is modeled on a law passed in New Zealand, but when their Labour Party was turfed out the incoming government had the good sense to repeal the measure before it took effect.

And on Friday the Commons voted to legalize assisted dying. England and Wales look set to join Oregon, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium, and much of Australia in giving state sanction to the medicalized killing of the old and infirm. As with all such measures when initially introduced, the proposals before Parliament are restrictive. Only those with six months or less to live, signed off by two doctors and approved by a senior judge will be able to avail themselves of this service. But once introduced—once the initial taboo is broken—such practices tend to expand.

So if both measures make it onto the statute books—the tobacco ban looks certain and the assisted dying provision looks likely—it will be illegal to kill oneself slowly, but perfectly fine to die rapidly at the hands of a doctor’s lethal injection or in a “suicide pod.” In the Commons votes, four Conservative members of Parliament and more than 200 from Labour managed somehow to square that particular circle. The irony has so far been little remarked upon.