Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Lord Patten Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 22nd October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Patten (Con)]

My Lords, I wish to make three points. First, I am totally opposed to this Bill because of my belief in the sanctity of human life and because of its unsafe contents; I respectfully agree with the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury in what he said earlier about its basically unsafe nature. Secondly, while it is an easy phrase to use, slippery slopes really do exist. At the time of the Abortion Act 1967, it was argued that there was not much to see here: it would all be very limited with few cases likely. Since then, however, there have been well over 9 million cases. Put in stark statistical terms, with no value judgments, were it not for this, our population today could have been 76 million and not 67 million people.

Similar sorts of arguments were being adduced in good faith in the introduction to this Bill today: not many cases are likely to happen; there will be lots of protections—High Court judges galore and the rest. The same arguments have been made over the last few years in other jurisdictions where assisted suicide has been introduced but then quickly followed by the lowering of age limits, people requesting access to this treatment because of feeling depressed, and so on. That is exactly what some promoters of this Bill outside your Lordships’ House wish to see as next steps, and what they would wish to promote.

Thirdly, I am very concerned generally about age discrimination in this country. I think it remains a blot on our nation, and, more than that, I believe that there is considerable abuse of the elderly behind closed doors. This is denied by many, but then many people denied for many years that child abuse existed. It was hidden away until, as we know, it was flushed out; indeed, recompense has been made following investigations. In exactly the same way, as a result of this Bill, should it see the light of legal day, these changes will set coercion free in the hidden home where there are elderly and disabled people. We know how it is; in shorthand: “Do the decent thing, bit of a burden in the home, you know, our inheritance is costing us a lot—there’s an easy way out.” I have even heard on the wilder, more surreal shores of argument, some people suggesting that assisted suicide will help to protect the NHS by reducing pressure on it. As they say in the better sort of tabloid papers, “You couldn’t make it up.”

I end by saying that death must not become the new normal to replace compassion and the care of humanity, skewing the very meaning of medicine.