Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Mawhinney and Baroness Richardson of Calow

Friday 7th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mawhinney]

I am aware of the point that the noble Lord makes. On the other hand, I have a lingering concern that the pressure of family and events can create circumstances in which it is quite difficult for people to express that reservation if they feel they are being a burden. At Second Reading, I gave the example of my own mother and the last years of her life. I quite accept that that provision is there; I know it and welcome it. However, it does not go far enough. There is a judgment call to be made at the very end which nobody can escape, which has to be affirmed, confirmed and made. It is one last chance. That does not seem unreasonable given the substance and significance of what the legislation is about.

In my earlier intervention I sought to persuade the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, to defer his vote. He and the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, exercised their rights absolutely; I have no complaint about that. They disappointed me, but they were perfectly entitled to do so. Let me therefore be explicit: I do not intend to push this to a vote today. I want to stimulate people to think about whether a settlement made some time ahead is a sufficient safeguard or whether it ought to be mandatorily reaffirmed just before the act takes place. I would like your Lordships to think about that. If my proposal finds favour, that is good and we can come back to it on Report. If not, I am interested in hearing other suggestions.

[Baroness Richardson of Calow (CB)]

My Lords, on Amendment 65, on capacity, it is hard to imagine how anybody who has just been told that they have less than six months to live, and who is in such pain that they do not want to continue living, should have absolutely no impairment or disturbance of the mind. This must be part of the condition—but I am not convinced that it would necessarily cloud or impair their judgment. When a person gets close to death, it clarifies the mind rather than clouds it, and gives them much more of an incentive to make decisions that will affect them in a very real way.

On the sense of obligation or duty to others, at the risk of sounding too much like a Methodist minister, there used to be in our Methodist hymnbook a hymn which started:

“Rejoice for a brother deceased;

Our loss is his infinite gain”.

There are occasions when people, feeling not just a duty to others but a delight and a joy in leaving behind a mortal body in order to find a fullness of life—which some of us already experience—will want to do so at the moment of their death.