Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Goodman of Wycombe and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

Committee stage
Friday 13th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Con)]

My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 151, which is supported by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Fox and Lady Hollins. It was also referred to approvingly by the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, in her earlier remarks. My amendment would prohibit medical professionals from raising assisted dying as an option, unless explicitly requested by the patient.

I will be very brief in introducing this amendment, by pointing out to the Committee that it goes to the heart of a juxtaposition suggested by the Bill. On the one hand, we have an increasingly large, frail, vulnerable, often elderly population, who may not have the full autonomy that the sponsor of the Bill suggests. On the other hand, we have a National Health Service that, by the nature of events, is almost always underfunded and feels that it will be underfunded. If you put those two things together, there will be an inevitable pressure to cut costs and present the cheaper option to the patient who is seeking guidance.

I have carefully read the sponsor’s words in Clause 5 and it is true that, on paper, the patient must be offered the option of palliative care as well as that of an assisted death. However, in these circumstances of financial restriction, I am concerned about the patient being steered in a certain direction. I will not regale the Committee with horror stories from abroad, usually from Canada, about precisely this taking place. Were I to do that, the sponsor of the Bill and others would, quite rightly, point out that there are safeguards in the Bill that are not present in Canada. I would point out in return that safeguards can be whittled away over time. In making that point, I mean nothing to the detriment of the sponsor of the Bill; I am sure that he does not mean it to happen but, over time, people can make amendments and changes to legislation.

I will step back from this amendment and look at it in this way. I believe that assisted dying is intrinsically problematic and, if the Bill ever got further, I would vote against it at Third Reading. However, my concern while we are here is to improve the Bill. If we are to have such a Bill, I want it to be in the best—I should say the least bad—condition possible. Noble Lords know that nothing in the amendment would alter the basic architecture and structure of what the sponsor of the Bill has proposed—in relation to the first doctor, the second doctor, the panel, proxies, the regime for regulating substances or any of that. The amendment would do nothing whatever to prevent anyone seeking an assisted death. All it would do is to prevent a medical professional raising it.

Therefore, I suggest to the noble and learned Lord the sponsor that, if he wants to make some progress with the Bill, he might accept this amendment or one of the many others in this group to a similar end. I look forward to hearing him when he replies but, whether he does accept it or not, this amendment would write a safeguard into the Bill that is not there, and I commend it to the Committee.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I congratulate the noble Lord because, although I disagreed with his conclusions, in just three minutes and 35 seconds he managed to summarise brilliantly the arguments both ways and the evidence.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Goodman of Wycombe and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

Committee stage
Friday 6th February 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Con)]

I apologise to the noble and learned Lord if he has already answered the question about my amendment. I would be grateful if he would clarify his view of Amendment 113 in relation to the code.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

If that is a reference to whether there should be the affirmative rather than the negative procedure, may I take it away? That seems a reasonable request. May I get back to the Committee on that?

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Goodman of Wycombe and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

Committee stage
Friday 23rd January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Con)]

My Lords—

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

If the noble Lord will let me finish, then he can come at me. The noble Lord, Lord Hamilton, refers to the question of wrong diagnoses. We will come to that in the group that starts with Amendment 71; I do not want to go into it now. However, we are dealing here with a terminal diagnosis, with two doctors and a panel who have approved it. Doctors are not perfect, of course, but this is very much a safeguarded measure.

I apologise for not taking the noble Lord’s intervention straight away.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Con)]

Imagine I were a poor person who went before the panel and opted for an assisted death, but said, “Were I rich, I would not do this; I would take my chance on the diagnosis being wrong”. If the amendment moved by the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, was passed, I would surely be ineligible, so her amendment is meaningful. If the noble and learned Lord believes that one should be able to choose an assisted death if one is poor, that is one thing, but, as my noble friend Lord Deben argued, one should be protected from having to choose it because one is poor. That is the difference.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

The way the noble Lord has put the question to me means that, plainly, this would be because of the illness, would it not? I want an assisted death because the illness is going to kill me. That seems quite a bad example.