I still don’t see why it is okay for someone who wants to kill themselves to ram their car into a wall or load up on a cocktail of dangerous drugs, but not okay for the government to facilitate a controlled, regulated and ultimately safe suicide if that is what the person involved really wants.

Columns like this one from Paul Sheehan don’t really assist very much. Sheehan seems to be confusing the capital punishment debate with the war on terror and describes Australia’s views on capital punishment as a form of “missionary condescension”. Actually its arguably a matter of basic human rights (e.g. Articles 3 and 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights). I don’t see a problem with Australia occasionally lecturing other countries if they are lecturing in support of a position that the majority of the world’s civilised countries support, quite frankly. In part this is how that little thing called progress can be slowly made.

I’m all for jailing them, making them look at photos of victims and grieving families, and giving the criminal the OPTION of being killed by any means that takes their fancy when either the guilt sinks in, or the long time in prison gets too much.

China’s use of executions is particularly worrying: but at least corrupt officials white collar criminals are just as likely to get the ultimate sanction as petty criminals.