Quote Originally Posted by swaledale View Post
Mm but on a philosophical level, what about the thousands if not hundreds of thousands living a futile and dreadful existence outside prison? And who makes the decision that its a futile and dreadful existence?

I'm actually in favour of euthanasia, but its personal decision made in certain clearly defined circumstances. Not one where somebody being punished wants to avoid the punishment.

I can't agree on cost grounds, there are many things the taxpayer pays for which could be judged to be futile, but one can't contemplate killing anybody simply to save money. Again it opens a can of worms, where does one stop, the mentally insane, severely disabled? Whatever the "moral" argument there is a case in each instance and even those with the best of intentions can make the wrong judgement call, never mind those of a more authoritarian nature.

Anyway, this is all just *******s, Anderson has been put there not because the majority of Tories approve of him, but because they know he will be attract votes from the "knuckle dragging" brigade and he is useful "dead cat" to distract from the real issues of the day.
Sorry, hadn’t really made the connection with Anderson although I do agree entirely with your appraisal of him.

As regards the rest. In a previous existence I spent a lot of time working with troubled young people who included more than their fair share of potential young offenders and I also made a few visits to certain institutions and arranged for prisoners to talk to the youngsters (Y11) in school.

The stories they told were seriously scary. They were meant to be, but talking to our visitors afterwards...their stories weren’t exaggerated.
What they told us about how those perceived as the lowest of the low - child killers, abusers etc - were treated was little short of horrific. That’s perhaps how it should be...in most cases I struggle to feel any sympathy...but if we’re attempting to show some sort of compassion then maybe euthanasia is an option because I suspect the lives of the likes of Huntley and Brady are/were the definition of futility.

Hugely difficult issue which only fools will seek to over simplify.