‘If I had my way, I would build a lethal chamber as big as the Crystal Palace, with a military band playing softly, and a cinematograph working brightly; then I’d go out in the back streets and main streets and bring them in, all the sick, the halt and the maimed; I would lead them gently, and they would smile me a weary thanks; and the band would softly bubble out the “Hallelujah Chorus”.’

This DH Lawrence quote from 1908 instantly came to mind when reading Matthew Parris’s column in The Times last week. The former Conservative MP was trying to make the case for legalising assisted suicide and euthanasia (ASE), though he has unwittingly demonstrated precisely why doing so would be so dangerous. He suggested that it might be useful to cull the elderly and infirm, who supposedly use up too many resources:

‘Our growing interest in assisted dying may reflect a largely unconscious realisation that we simply cannot afford extreme senescence or desperate infirmity for as many such individuals as our society is producing. “Your time is up” will never be an order, but – yes, the objectors are right – may one day be the kind of unspoken hint that everybody understands. And that’s a good thing.’

Parris’s column has since been met with near-universal condemnation, including from proponents of what is euphemistically referred to as ‘assisted dying’.