Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Dobbs and Lord Cormack

Friday 16th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Dobbs]

Far from deliberately ignoring the word, I would like to turn to another point that I think will answer the noble Baroness’s question precisely. If we insist on using the word “suicide”, as required by the amendment, we could end up with entirely unintended and counterproductive consequences. When the Bill becomes law—as I believe eventually it will—if it legalises suicide rather than assisted dying, might that not tend to make all forms of suicide more acceptable? It would become the thin end of the wedge, the slippery slope, by making suicide in general more acceptable. That is not what I want. “Suicide” is the wrong terminology because this is a different matter from the other types of death that come under the determination of suicide.

[Lord Cormack]

My Lords—

[Lord Dobbs]

May I just finish this sentence? It might help bring about the very outcome that the opponents of the Bill seek to avoid.

[Lord Cormack]

If I ask my noble friend to give me a cup of hemlock, telling him that I am going to drink it, and he gives it to me and I drink it, have I committed suicide or not?

[Lord Dobbs]

The Bill is nothing to do with going off into a corner and getting someone to assist you in a death like that. This is a totally different legal and medical environment. We will all die.