Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Debate between Baroness Grey-Thompson and Lord Taylor of Holbeach

Friday 7th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Noble Lords]

No.

[Lord Taylor of Holbeach]

If I can just explain—those amendments that are part of the groups that the pre-empted amendments belong to will occur later on, when we come to them in order.

[Baroness Grey-Thompson]

I apologise; I did not express myself very well. I thank the noble Lord for that clarification. I agree with the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Howarth of Newport, on coercion. I absolutely endorse what my noble friends Lord Alton and Lady Finlay of Llandaff said about terminology. Terminology is the dress of thought and is incredibly important.

We still have to debate issues such as how, what, when, where and who, which come up in Clause 1. I refer to an issue which I cannot see coming up anywhere else—that is, how somebody who is peg fed may be assisted to die, and where that fits in with what help is actually needed. In the USA, a patient had a peg fitted expressly so that he could be helped with assisted suicide. My noble friend Lady Campbell of Surbiton already has a peg fitted and that is how she is fed and survives. A lot of questions still need to be answered about the administration of drugs. I think it is assumed that a patient may be swallowing some medicine or some liquid, but for some people the situation might be very different.