Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Debate between Baroness O'Loan and Lord Warner

Friday 16th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness O’Loan (CB)]

I apologise for interrupting the noble Lord, but I just wanted to inquire: why does he think that it would cause confusion to introduce the term assisted suicide rather than assisted dying, when the actual fact is that it is assisted suicide? I just do not understand the logic. People understand suicide and dying as two separate acts.

[Lord Warner]

If we are really concerned with what the public understand, it is a bit presumptuous to assume that they have been following these debates for 10 to 12 years but have not understood what we have been talking about in terms of assisted dying. We get a lot of criticism in Westminster—