FOR one of the few things that all humans have in common, death gets talked about a worryingly small amount.

Yet since it will happen to all of us, we really should all think about how we would want our own to be.

It is hard to imagine anyone saying they would want months of agony or to take their own life in a violent manner seriously upsetting to their family.

Yet at the moment that is what the law as it stands pushes many people to do.

Former mayor Gill Sweeting first tried to get going a public conversation on death when she was a relatively healthy fifty-something-year-old.

Now terminally ill and in her seventies, she is trying again, and her views have not changed.

She still believes people should be helped to end their lives if that is what they want, preserving their dignity and degree of control.

Much of the opposition to assisted dying is based on how it will work in practice, rather than those important freedoms at stake.

Of course, no-one wants to see vulnerable people pushed into making bad decisions, and the strongest safeguards should be put in place.

But should a policy be decided on potential risks that can be lessened, or on the values it upholds?