Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Lord Layard Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 22nd October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Layard (Lab)]

I want to make just three points. The main argument that we have heard against the Bill is the fear that relatives will exert undue pressure. For many years, I was persuaded by that argument. However, we now have evidence on these matters. We should look at the evidence, not just the fear. The evidence that we have comes from the places that have done this, including Oregon and Australia, and everywhere it has been tried there is clear evidence that there is no problem of that kind. So unless British people are more sinful than people in other countries, I do not think we should accept the argument from fear because we have evidence of the outcome. In my experience, the more that one knows about assisted dying—this is also true of my friends—the more one is inclined to support it.

Second is the argument we have recently heard: that palliative care can prevent extreme suffering. I have had a letter from a senior oncologist, Richard Osborne, who says he has managed 10,000 dying cancer patients. He says that recent public criticism of assisted dying has been unbalanced, melodramatic and misleading, stating that the argument that

“advances in pain medicine mean no one needs to die in physical agony”

cannot go unchallenged. In his experience, despite the best efforts, a significant minority of patients die after a period of great, unrelieved distress. In future, the refusal to allow assisted dying will be considered as inhumane as the policy of forced adoption, which was similarly based on outdated social mores. That is a strong statement.

The Bill offers a solution that is hedged with safeguards. By comparison, the present situation is far from safe. There is only one legal alternative to continuing to suffer, which of course is unassisted suicide. From nine different surveys, it is estimated that, currently, between 3,000 and 6,000 dying people—a large number—attempt to commit suicide. Only one in 10 succeeds.

I had a friend who starved herself to death. What a terrible way to end your life—alone, because no one is allowed to help you; you are helpless. How awful that is for the family left behind. Surely for the sake of the patient and the family, we should let those who wish to do so die in dignity, at a planned moment, with family and friends around them.

Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Lord Layard Excerpts

Friday 18th July 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Layard (Lab)]

My Lords, I support the Bill for many reasons, but time is passing so I want to focus on just one, which is the feeling of being a burden to your family and friends. That issue was highlighted in the letter to the Times from opponents of the Bill. As they rightly pointed out, 61% of people who chose to die in Washington gave as one reason that they did not want to be a burden to their family and friends. That is a fact, but the opponents of the Bill then go on in that letter, and in today’s debate, to infer that if the Bill was passed there would therefore be more pressure on people from family and friends to make this choice. We do not need speculative inference; we have 17 years of evidence from Oregon, where no single instance of undue pressure from family and friends has been discovered. Unless British people are more heartless than Americans, I do not think it is at all proper to conduct an argument not by looking at evidence but just by speculating about what might happen if we did something.

There is also a separate moral issue that has been raised by the Bill’s opponents: is it all right if people take into account the effect on family and friends when they make a decision as important as this? The noble Baroness, Lady Warnock, said everything that there is to be said on this, but I will just say it again because it is such an important point. The main point of that letter is that it is shocking that people should take this into account. However, every moral theory that I have ever heard of encourages us to take into account the effect of our decisions on other people. Why should that principle suddenly cease to apply as a person approaches death? If a person is going to die an agonising death, that person is not the only one who will be traumatised. Their family and friends will be traumatised, too. Not only will they lose their loved one; they will be left with horrible memories for the rest of their lives. So if a dying person wants to take that sort of thing into account, how on earth can it be a bad form of motivation? I find it a very peculiar argument. Of course, not everyone will want to. Some people will and others will not, but surely that should be their choice. Why should we prevent people taking altruistic decisions if they want to? Why should we think it particularly shocking if they decide to do this on altruistic grounds?

I come to my concluding points. We have no evidence that the Bill will lead to greater pressure from family and friends and good evidence that it will not. Therefore, because there is not that—if you like—atmospheric effect, the standard principle of a liberal society surely applies in this case. We all know what the fundamental principle of a liberal society is. People on all sides of this House regularly say that a person should be free to do what they want unless it harms someone else. That is the aim of the Bill.