“Some argue that anyone who judges that they are better off dead has got to be mistaken. They’re depressed but they don’t realise it, or they have misjudged what the future is likely to hold. This is deeply patronising to the many men and women who have decided that life with their terminal conditions is not worth living. To say that they are just mistaken is to say we are better judges of the value of other people’s lives than they are themselves. This is not compassion but arrogance.”