Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Lord Butler of Brockwell Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 22nd October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Butler of Brockwell (CB)]

My Lords, some 35 years ago my father was in the final stages of dying from pancreatic cancer. He knew that he was dying, his family knew, his doctor knew and the nurses in his cottage hospital knew. After passing a night in agony, he said to me that he did not want to pass another such night, and he asked me to arrange it—which of course I could not. I did what I could, by reporting what he had said to his doctor. My father did wake the following morning, but he died a few days later on a day his doctor had predicted. I am in no doubt that his doctor helped him to die. Our family was very grateful to the doctor, and my father would have been profoundly grateful too. But the doctor may have taken a risk. He may have taken that risk because my father was in a local cottage hospital, where the doctor and the nurses knew and trusted each other.

My wife and I have made living wills. They are a form of assisted dying. They give directions about our medical treatment in a range of circumstances and indemnify those in charge of that treatment from any civil liability arising from their actions or omissions—but of course they cannot protect them from criminal liability under the existing law.

I support the Bill introduced by my noble friend. I understand, I think, and sympathise with the motives of those who oppose it, but it is time to have a properly regulated system that prevents suffering and makes it unnecessary for desperate people to resort to Dignitas or to take their own lives in even more distressing ways. I will support the Bill.