Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Baroness O'Loan and Lord Harper

Committee stage
Friday 23rd January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords, I will make two brief points. First, I support the important point made by my noble friend Lady Berridge about how we deal with misinformation. In an enlightening exchange I had with Health Ministers on the subject of flu vaccination, I discovered that a significant number of people working in the health service are vaccine hesitant and at least some of them are because of the scare stories that we read about vaccination. I suspect that those people will be more informed than the general public, because they work in the health service, so how we deal with misinformation is very important.

My main question, for which I am pleased to be in this House surrounded by expert lawyers, is a legal question on Amendment 188A, tabled by my noble friend Lady Coffey, about putting current case law in statute. My question is aimed at the Minister, I suspect, but if he is not able to answer it today, I would be grateful if he could write to us. Would it be helpful to put the current case law position in statute? Would that be helpful in the sense of giving Parliament’s imprimatur, saying that we are comfortable and that we think the current position is helpful? Would it in any way inhibit or prevent the development of further case law?

Again, because of what my noble friend Lady Berridge said, I am conscious that a lot of the information that people get is from online sources. Because of the fast-changing nature of the world, artificial intelligence and so forth, I would want to make sure that, in this area, evolving ways of people getting accurate information that they can rely on were able to be taken into account by case law; equally, I would want to ensure that case law could take into account information sources that are not reliable and reputable and give guidance to clinicians about how they deal with informed consent. The danger of putting some of that detail into statute is that it does take some time to update. I am looking for factual guidance about whether that is helpful for us to put into statute or whether it is better to leave it for evolving case law. It is a factual question, and I hope that the Minister can either deal with it today or write to us.

[Baroness O'Loan (CB)]

My Lords, very briefly, I support these amendments. The process is designed only to kill but, inevitably, as noble Lords have explained, there will be complications. People react differently to different drugs. Only with full information will the patient be able to consent. Without it, that consent cannot exist.

I have questions for the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer. Why is the doctor required to discuss the nature of the substance—how it will bring about death, how it will be administered—but not to tell the patient that it may not be successful? Why must the doctor discuss with the person their wishes in the event of complications? Why is there no requirement to explain and discuss the risks of complication? How can a patient give informed consent? If the noble and learned Lord does not intend to accept these amendments, can he tell the House what his intentions are?