When I Googled ‘assisted dying’, a link to the Samaritans was top of the list of websites presented to me by the computer algorithm. “Help is available, speak with someone today,” it said.

Don’t worry, I wasn’t looking for the Dignitas website; I just wanted to double-check the name of the MP sponsoring an assisted dying bill in the British parliament.

But in a world where the internet is often portrayed negatively, it was reassuring that someone with a bit of human decency had thought fit to programme in an alternative option for anyone thinking a Swiss euthanasia clinic offered a viable way out of their predicament.

I am not yet at the stage of needing Dignitas, but I am of an age when my grown-up children tease me about the type of care home they will ship me off to. Some Christmas I might find a one-way ticket to Switzerland under the tree.

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