Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Lord Empey Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 19th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

My Lords, I have been shocked at the inaccuracy of the parliamentary process applied to the Bill. It has lacked the detailed scrutiny that such a major piece of legislation requires, as confirmed in recent devastating reports by committees of this House. Despite all the hype in the Commons, it failed to gain the support of a majority of MPs.

Let us be clear what the Bill does. It authorises medical professionals in the employ of the state to introduce and ultimately provide the means by which an individual in the care of the NHS can be assisted to commit suicide, and to observe and supervise that process. The Bill also gives unprecedented powers to the Secretary of State. The Bill is not fit for purpose, and I am not convinced that it can be adequately reformed. As a member of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, I accept my Church’s teaching on the principle of the Bill, but I am also a legislator, and that confers its own distinct obligations and responsibilities.

In my family’s case, we were faced with the illness of my late wife, Stella. She suffered from complicated medical conditions. In January 2023, she was very unwell—to the extent that the consultant called the family together and said that she was not going to pull out of it this time. Had he been asked whether she was terminally ill and would die within six months, he would have said yes. Would he have signed off as expecting her death in six days? I believe so, as that is what we were told. Nine months later, I was still taking her out most days, and she was able to enjoy that time with our children and grandchildren. I am also aware that she felt she was impacting on the ability of our children to get on with their careers. I could sense the anxiety she felt at impacting on our lives. This is the pressure point that is glossed over in the Bill and the discourse around it.

Doctors do not get it right all the time, and this arbitrary six-month timescale is a dangerous nonsense. The Bill would fundamentally change the relationship between the medical profession and patients at all levels. Gone would be the days of “do no harm”. Doctors could be seen not only as healers but as instruments to end the life of a patient in hospital, maybe spurred on for financial reasons. Families are not always welcoming environments. They can be toxic with competing pressures, especially over money. It is in these circumstances where subtle pressures to end a life can be generated.

Some of the basic practicalities have not yet been investigated because of this mad dash to get the Bill through. I know that all of us in this Chamber want the same thing: to reduce and minimise suffering. None of us knows how our days will end, but I believe that we are adding to suffering by introducing massive anxiety to patients at the most vulnerable time of their lives.

Our mailbags have been characterised by messages from disabled people, the elderly and others who feel a sense that they are no longer valued by society, surplus to requirements and mere cost centres. I know this is not the intention of the sponsors, but that is the inevitable outworking. To involve the entire NHS and turn its ethos upside-down is a serious mistake. People may also be afraid to present themselves to doctors for fear of getting a one-way ticket. Those of us with the financial means to get the best advice can do so, but for those without the resources it is the NHS or nothing.

It is time to think again. We have underinvested in palliative care for years, thus reducing rather than enhancing choice. Surely it makes sense to follow that route, as emphasised by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, rather than risking the nearly 80 years of the embedding of a life-saving NHS in our nation’s DNA.