Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Debate between Baroness Hollins and Baroness Hayter of Kentish TownFriday 21st November 2025
(1 week, 3 days ago)
Lords ChamberRead Full debate Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill 2024-26 View all Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill 2024-26 Debates Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: HL Bill 112-II(b) Amendments for Committee (Supplementary to the Second Marshalled List) - (21 Nov 2025)
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)
I do not have to give way. I have been speaking for three minutes, and I have listened for some hours. I am sure the noble Lord can come back; it is Committee stage, so he can speak again.
People have talked personally. Both my parents died when I was a child. People know that one of them died tragically and very suddenly; the other did so in enormous pain at the end. As a child, I went through that, so I understand about bereavement and grief, and seeing someone die in great pain. We have all been through that, and some of us come to a different conclusion. We come to a conclusion that no matter how we define pressure or coercion—the discussions we are having—what we want is the ability to move forward and help those who want help to bring things forward a few days earlier. I do not know whether the noble Lord, Lord Deben, has been through probate when trying to sell a house, but for someone who is already dying and may be a month off, bringing it forward a month or a couple of weeks would not make that much difference. We are finding excuses.
I am sorry not to have given way, but I have listened for some hours, and it is only appropriate that someone who supports the Bill also gets the chance to speak today.
Baroness Hollins (CB)
Before the noble Baroness sits down, can I just ask which amendments she was speaking to, because this is Committee and not Second Reading? Every amendment that I have tabled is designed to make the Bill better and I feel quite concerned to be accused of time-wasting.
Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town (Lab)
I was talking to the debate on coercion, because there is no check on it for the existing way of ending one’s life early, which is to go to Dignitas. I was asking whether, if the Bill is changed in the way that, for example, the noble Lady, Lady Hollins, would like, she would then support it.