Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Hamilton of Epsom and Baroness Lawlor

Committee stage
Friday 20th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hamilton of Epsom (Con)]

All right—they could apply, if that helps the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter.

We have to think closely about this, because this is the essence of the Bill. I do not understand how we can be comfortable with the whole idea that some of these diagnoses will be completely wrong and, as a result, there will be people who will apply for assisted dying who might have lived for years. This strikes me as being a disturbing element of the whole Bill. We should be seriously considering whether something should be done to address this problem. I am glad it is not my difficulty.

[Baroness Lawlor (Con)]

My Lords, my noble friend Lord Moylan and the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, have told us about the uncertainty of the statistical evidence, and indeed the unreliability. That points to a flaw at the heart of the Bill, for which a condition for eligibility is that death must be reasonably expected within six months in consequence of that illness. What then is at the heart of the Bill, if I may develop the point a bit, is a process for managing assisted suicide in consequence of something which is not at all certain.

I have to say that, in the areas we know about where the state has a process for providing a service, particularly in education, we see that a state service is not geared to the individual case. One of the points that my noble friend Lord Moylan explained was the individual case, and most noble Lords agree with this. How are we going to have a state service, as is proposed by the sponsor’s Bill, for a general cohort, and not the specific individual case, that is reliable for individuals? We see in education and other areas that exceptions continue to have to be made—for instance, for children with special educational needs, particularly autistic children. These are exceptional cases which do not fit the general application of a state service.