Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Mawhinney and Lord Howard of Lympne

Friday 16th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Howard of Lympne (Con)]

My Lords, I am sorry to disagree with the noble Lord, Lord Low, but I do so for the following reason. I have previously declared my interest as chairman of Hospice UK, the umbrella organisation for hospices in this country. The hospice movement has no collective view on the Bill, so inevitably I speak for myself, not for the hospice movement, but I know that the point that I am about to make is widely shared within that movement. To put the matter at its lowest, if the Bill becomes law, the challenges which the hospice movement and the people who work in it will face will be much more complicated. It is therefore essential that clarity is achieved.

The noble Lord, Lord Pannick, in his characteristically powerful speech, said to your Lordships that anyone who reads Clause 1 can be in no doubt about what it means, and he read out Clause 1. That would be a very persuasive argument in a court of law, but I fear that most people who will be faced with the terrible decision which the Bill will legalise will not have read Clause 1. That argument does not advance the issues before your Lordships on the amendments. I believe that clarity is essential, and can best be achieved by agreeing the amendment in the name of the noble Baroness.

[Lord Mawhinney (Con)]

My Lords, as one who has signed several amendments, I will say that I did so not because of conversations with other noble Lords but because I read the Bill. The more I read, the more I was puzzled by its title. I wish that I had thought of the simile that the noble Baroness, Lady O’Neill, used when she talked about the similarity with truth in advertising. I came to the view that the Bill was about assisting suicide rather than assisted dying. I was stimulated along that thought process by two things. One was the speech of my noble friend Lord Howard at Second Reading when he talked about the work of the hospices. I have recently had some involvement with a hospice in Peterborough. The second was correspondence with doctors who work in the palliative medicine field. Both things created in my mind the vision that the noble Lord, Lord Winston, and the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries of Pentregarth, gave of assisted dying being a palliative feature of making the process more comfortable for the patient.

I am just smart enough never to want to tangle on legal matters with the noble Lord, Lord Pannick. I noted the points that he read to us from the Bill in support of his contention that the Bill is perfectly clear. The second thing that caused me to come to the conclusion that I should put my name to the amendments was Clause 4—so let me read just a little bit to your Lordships. It states:

“The assisting health professional must remain with the person until the person has … self-administered the medicine and died”.

Where I come from, I guess that they would call that suicide. The noble Lord, Lord Brennan, introduced the word “euphemism”, which has been at the heart of a lot of the speeches that we have heard. It has taken the form of clarity in telling the truth. I have to say that in all honesty I do not like the euphemism attached to the wording of the Bill when it comes to this point, and I was happy to add my name to the amendments tabled by the noble Baroness.

Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Debate between Lord Mawhinney and Lord Howard of Lympne

Friday 7th November 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mawhinney]

My Lords, I follow my noble and learned friend Lord Mackay. I was thinking along similar lines on Amendment 10 and fully informed decisions. I am sure that all of us want decisions to be fully informed, so I wonder whether the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, could before Report give some thought to whether he is satisfied that fully informed clearly includes, first, being told what the options are and, secondly, on the part of the patient, having some comprehension of what he or she is being told. Running off a list of options does not mean that the recipient is fully informed if he or she does not understand what the options really mean.

[Lord Howard of Lympne]

My Lords, I support the observations made by my noble friend Lord Cavendish, with respect to Amendment 70, to which he spoke but which he did not move. He spoke about the importance of palliative and hospice care, and I support what he said and endorse what he said for the reasons that he gave and those that I gave earlier today, in our first debate. I was very concerned by the tale related by the noble and right reverend Lord, Lord Harries of Pentregarth, about a remark made by a nurse in a hospice. I was distressed and surprised by that, and if he were to let me have the details I would like to look into it. It is all the more surprising because the greatest growth area in hospice care is hospice at home. Increasingly, nurses and other workers from hospices go out and look after people towards the end of their lives, in their homes. I was really distressed to hear that, but I assure your Lordships that it is very unusual and exceptional.

I should say a word in support of the observations made by the noble Baroness, Lady Howe of Idlicote. Her observations were powerful and speak for themselves, but I confess that I had not expected the issues before the House today to become entwined in the larger immigration debate, which occupies so much space in the press at the moment—but it seems that it has done, as result of the intervention of the noble Baroness, and I strongly support what she said.