First of all, are we committed to moving forward in a way that is transparent? Are we moving forward in a way that also acknowledges that many of the things that drive a wish to die extend beyond the purview of medicine?
To ask doctors to be making evaluations on things that have little or nothing to do with medicine is placing them in a very difficult position. Even those who are strong proponents and who wrote the report for the Royal Society said that it might not ideally be physicians who should be involved in making these determinations. The availability of judicial oversight acknowledges that we are going to be open to including all areas of expertise, whether it's of physicians, social workers, or lawyers, to determine what is driving the wish to die.
If the issue is whether this is going to be too arduous a process, I would say that we're talking about life and death; these are very important decisions. In this day and age, we should be able to put the resources into it so that we can expedite the process, so that we are not prolonging suffering.