As a doctor, I have spent much of my professional life caring for people at some of the most vulnerable moments they will ever face.(作为一名医生，我职业生涯的大部分时间都在人们最脆弱的时刻照顾他们。) I have seen the anxiety that surrounds the prospect of(…的前景，可能性) dying, and the desperate(绝望的，极其渴望的) wish of patients and families to avoid unnecessary suffering.
作为一名医生，我的职业生涯中有很大一部分时间都在人们一生中最脆弱的时刻照顾他们。我见过人们对死亡前景的焦虑，也见过患者和家属渴望避免不必要痛苦的迫切心情。
Naturally, we all want people facing the end of life(生命终点，临终) to be treated with kindness and respect. But when considering the debate on assisted dying, true compassion(同情，怜悯) demands that we ask a more fundamental question. What kind of society are we building if, before we’ve fixed the systems designed to care for people, we introduce a system designed to help them die?(如果我们还没修复照护系统就引入帮助死亡的系统，我们在建设什么样的社会？) As a former health minister who has seen the system from the inside, I am able to say it is not ready or equipped(有能力的，装备好的) to answer this question.
自然，我们都希望面临生命终点的人能得到善待和尊重。但在考虑辅助死亡的辩论时，真正的同情心要求我们提出一个更根本的问题：如果我们尚未完善旨在照护人们的系统，就引入一个旨在帮助他们死亡的系统，我们正在建设什么样的社会？作为一位曾从内部了解该体系的前卫生部长，我可以说，它还没有准备好，也没有能力回答这个问题。
Andy Burnham has been right to raise this as a priority issue at the start of his tenure(任期，任职期) as prime minister. Speaking at a care home recently, he explained that assisted dying should not be introduced while Britain’s palliative care and social care systems remain under such strain. A choice between death without adequate care and a death prematurely self-induced is not a real choice.(在缺乏充分照护的死亡与过早自我了断的死亡之间做选择，不是真正的选择。)
安迪·伯纳姆在首相任期之初就将此作为优先事项提出，这是正确的。他最近在一家养老院发表讲话时解释说，在英国姑息治疗和社会关怀系统仍承受如此压力的情况下，不应引入辅助死亡。在缺乏充分照护的死亡与过早自我了断的死亡之间做出选择，并非真正的选择。