The House of Commons was at its very worst last night when the Mental Capacity Bill, which would enforce living wills and make it an offence in certain circumstances for doctors to refuse to starve or dehydrate patients to death, was passed in chaotic scenes as MPs were left unsure whether the government was or was not guaranteeing an amendment to neuter the death-dealing properties of the measure. The Bill is simply abominable and should never have been brought. But having been brought, it should have been treated, as such isues have hitherto always ben treated, as a mater of conscience and left to a free vote. Instead it was forced through on a three line whip.

So the situation is that the British Parliament has now whipped through a Bill under whose provisions doctors will be forced to kill their patients or go to prison. How can thuios possibly have happened, in a democracy in the 21st century?