Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Ministry of Justice
Lord Curry of Kirkharle
Main Page: Lord Curry of Kirkharle (Crossbench - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Curry of Kirkharle's debates with the Ministry of Justice
(2 days, 20 hours ago)
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Noble Lords
Lord Curry of Kirkharle (CB)
My Lords, I will be very brief. I have tabled two amendments, Amendments 183 and 184, which I shall comment on very briefly. They are designed to address the consistent concern within this group about the availability of palliative care. I shall put some data to this which has not been mentioned.
Every day, it has been estimated that between 250 and 300 people die without adequate palliative care, and more than one-quarter facing the end of life do not receive the care they require and deserve. This is a serious figure: the service is under immense strain. It is a lottery. It varies significant depending on where you live, with ethnic minority groups facing even greater difficulty in accessing the service. One benefit of debating this Bill is that it has brought renewed focus on the palliative care crisis we face. We cannot introduce an assisted dying option without first having addressed this serious concern and without having qualified palliative care advice available to those who may want to choose end-of-life options.
Amendment 183 is a further strengthening of the extremely important amendment from the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, which would require quality palliative care to be offered to anyone who may be considering an assisted death, so that no one dies without having had this option. They would have to opt out—that is important. Secondly, Amendment 184 would require a definition of what constitutes a palliative care professional. This has been mentioned before and is extremely important. As a caring society, I believe we have a responsibility to ensure that patients can spend their final days being supported by a quality palliative care service, to relieve their suffering as far as possible. In short, no one should feel that they have no choice but to end their life due to gaps in the care system that we have failed to bridge.