Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Lord Harper Excerpts

Friday 16th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Deben (Con)]

I hope that it was an intervention, because, if so, I am able to comment on it. If we start talking about paternalism, we will go backwards in time. We are not really talking about that at all; we are talking about the legislation of this House and the House of Commons. We are talking about how we produce legislation that works. What worries me is that there are a lot of words being used, such as “paternalism”, “kindness” and others, that are making us less precise. Law has to be precise enough for it to be properly implemented.

Frankly, the intervention of the noble Baroness sums up something else. There is a paternalism among some in this Committee who feel that they are so right about the Bill and that they can therefore ignore the comments of people who are trying very hard to overcome their own prejudices—if that is the right word—to get the Bill right. I find it a bit discomfiting to be lectured to, from time to time, as if I should not be making any of these comments because I do not seem to understand the higher views that are being presented. After being a Member of Parliament for 40 years and knowing what goes on in families in terrible circumstances, all I am trying to do is protect people. That is my job; it has been my job all my life. In response to the noble Baroness shaking her head, I say: that is not paternalism; that is the role of leadership in any circumstances. It is what decent people do, and, above all, it is what kindness demands.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords, I will speak to two blocks of amendments in this group. Before I turn to that, I just want to pick up on the points that my noble friend Lord Deben made. I strongly agree with the thrust of his speech, and I look forward to the response of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, to this group, not just to the specific amendments. Perhaps it will give us a sign of how he intends to respond.

I agree that if the noble and learned Lord listens to the concerns of the Committee and sets out clearly on the Floor of the House on the public record what he intends to do about some of them, that is the best way, from his point of view, to make progress. It is important that those commitments are made on the Floor of the House in public, rather than in private meetings. That is how Ministers generally conduct themselves when they discuss concerns with Back-Benchers. They might have meetings to discuss those concern, but, certainly when I was a Minister, I was always expected to set out at the Dispatch Box what I was committing to do on behalf of the Government so that people were confident that we all had an agreement and that it could not be walked back. Given that we are in a slightly different situation here, because it is a Private Member’s Bill and the noble and learned Lord is the sponsor, I would expect him to behave in the same way as a Minister piloting a Bill to give that level of public transparency, and I hope he will be able to do so.

I will pick up on what my noble friend Lord Deben said in response to the noble Baroness, Lady Jay of Paddington. I agree with her that we should not be paternalistic, but I do not agree that that is what we are in danger of doing. This group of amendments is about making sure that other people are not making decisions on behalf of the individual who is going to end up losing their life. This is about making sure it is actually their decision, that they are not being pressured into it and that someone is not making it on their behalf. Allowing somebody else to allow someone to be killed is the paternalistic thing—to turn a blind eye to it and do nothing about it. To make sure that it is genuinely that individual’s settled will is the opposite of paternalism. That is what we are trying to do in this group of amendments.

The first amendment I want briefly to refer to is Amendment 28 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff. It is about setting out in the eligibility criteria that someone is entitled to benefits under the special rules, for example, personal independence payment on the grounds of terminal illness. I accept that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, may quibble with the wording, but the point is to make sure that the person has gone through that process to apply for that benefit to make sure that one of the reasons they are seeking assisted suicide is not because of financial pressure. There may be other ways of achieving that, but that is the purpose of the amendment, and that is very important.

The Committee will be aware that under our rules for personal independence payment, if you have a terminal illness diagnosis, there is a fast-track procedure, rightly, so that you can get financial support much quicker than under the normal process. That is very important to ensure that someone facing a terminal diagnosis does not have financial pressures added to all the other things they are dealing with. The amendment is a sensible way of ensuring that someone has got that financial support and to make sure that is not the reason they are seeking assisted suicide.

Secondly, I support Amendment 31 and Amendments 68 and 68A, to which I have attached my name. They would make sure that it is genuinely somebody’s own request. The reason why that is important is—we will hear from the noble and learned Lord in a minute about whether he thinks the drafting of the Bill already deals with this—that I am very mindful of the issue that we hear about pretty much every week, and I suspect we will hear it again today from the Minister, who usually has an extensive piece in her briefing that counsels us on concerns about the European Convention on Human Rights and the extent to which decisions that this Committee takes might end up being challenged under that legislation and that we should bear that in mind.

I always listen to the Minister with care, and I am effectively doing what she is asking us to do, which is to be concerned about that issue. Even if the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, is able to assure us that, in his view, the Bill as drafted does not present that risk, I still want him to look seriously at these amendments because of my concern—which we have seen in other jurisdictions—about judicial oversight and judicial moving of the goalposts. This legislation will inevitably be challenged, and I want to make sure that we do not find judges starting to move the goalposts when there are challenges and allowing things to happen that we would not have wanted to happen.

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[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

My Lords, I very strongly support what the noble Lord, Lord Deben, said. I would just like to correct something that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, said in his email yesterday, I think. I am extremely anxious to get this Bill through to Third Reading, but I profoundly dislike it, and I never said that I wanted to get it right the way through to the House of Commons. I just wanted to put that right.

I doubt the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Harper, that judges would be moving the goalposts. I think he is in a different world from me. Having been a judge, I do not remember ever moving the goalposts; it is only when the law is uncertain that judges, from time to time, have to come to decisions.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

I am very grateful to the noble and learned Baroness and, of course, I defer to her knowledge of the law. The point I am making, which I think is the same point, is that we should make sure that the legislation is absolutely clear, so that there is no risk of that. The other issue, of course, is that so much of this legislation is not in statute but left to regulations, which are much easier for judges to challenge than primary legislation.

[Baroness Butler-Sloss (CB)]

I am not at all sure that they are. If Parliament has passed regulations or primary legislation, judges apply it; they certainly do not try to move the goalposts. That is the only point I am making.

The last point I want to make is that as the recipient of a lasting power of attorney, which is in the hands of my children, I certainly do not want them to decide when I die.

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[Lord Markham (Con)]

This whole debate shows that these are not black and white matters. Although they are all relevant criteria, which absolutely should be in the assessment—my understanding from the Bill is that they are in the assessment—it should not be put down as some sort of tick-box exercise that says you are either eligible or not, according to them.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

May I just check: is the noble Lord, Lord Markham, really saying that he wants it to be open so that a lasting power of attorney could be used by somebody else to seek the death of the person on behalf of whom they have that power? Does he want that to be available? I do not think he does, and it appeared that the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, did not either. If we do not think it should be, we should rule it out.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

What I am trying to come back to—a point that my noble friend Lord Deben was making—is that there are some valid criteria here. I am trying to build some flexibility into this system. Lots of eligibility criteria are being set out here, in all these different amendments.

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[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

“Available” in that context obviously means available in a practical sense for that particular patient. If you live in the western part of England and there is palliative care of a particular sort available in a place you cannot access, that would not be “available”.

My noble friend Lady Merron indicated what the effect of Amendment 28 is, which was again proposed by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay. The effect is that there are two additional requirements before you are eligible for an assisted death: first, that you are eligible for certain specific benefits available at end of life; and, secondly, that there has been a home visit by a GP to consider it.

Neither of those is appropriate for eligibility requirements for an assisted death. As my noble friend Lady Merron said, you might well not be eligible for particular benefits because, for example, they are means tested and you are above the means. It would be wholly wrong for that to prevent you getting an assisted death if you are otherwise entitled to it. Again, I do not think that the purpose of the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, advancing that provision was to say, “You’ve got to satisfy these specific requirements”, with all the problems my noble friend Lady Merron indicated.

What I think she was getting at is that you have to be sure that financial circumstance—being short of money—is not a relevant reason for an assisted death. I put forward the Bill on the basis that choice is the key thing. Your financial position might be an element in what makes you reach a decision. From the way that the safeguards are put in the Bill, they are trying to ensure it is your decision, freely made.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

I am slightly incredulous about this, so I am just going to make sure I understand the noble and learned Lord correctly. As we also heard earlier from the noble Baroness, Lady Jay, he is talking about someone’s autonomy. If you are in a financial position where you feel you are unable to live properly because you have no money, and as a result of that you decide you want to end your life, that is not a freely reached decision; that is being done because of your circumstances. Is he really saying that he is okay with poor people ending their lives, with the assistance of others, because they are poor? That is what it sounds like. All we are talking about with these amendments is putting in provisions to make sure that is not the case. That is not paternalistic; it is protecting people. Exactly as my noble friend Lord Deben said, that is what we should be doing in this House.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I am saying that what the Bill does is allow you to make your own decision. I am strongly against saying poor people should not have that choice, which appears to be what the noble Lord, Lord Harper, is saying. The evidence from abroad is that it is people from perhaps more financially secure circumstances who make this sort of choice.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

I am going to come back once more, because the noble and learned Lord suggested why I was saying what I was saying, which is absolutely not the case. What I am saying is that if someone is making the decision because they feel pressured because of their financial circumstances, that is not a free choice; that is a choice that is being forced upon someone by their circumstances. They are not in an equal position to someone with resources. That would be very wrong, and I think people would be horrified that he is suggesting that someone, because of their financial circumstances, should be more likely to end their life than someone else.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I am saying it is their choice.

I will go on to Amendment 31 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick, referred to by the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, in relation to the issue. The noble Baroness, Lady Berger, is saying on behalf of the noble Baroness, Lady Ritchie of Downpatrick, that it must be their own request for an assisted death. The whole Bill is posited on the proposition that the person making the request has to be doing it as their own free choice. I draw attention in that respect to Clause 1(1)(a),

“has the capacity to make a decision to end their own life”,

then Clause 1(2),

“has a clear, settled and informed wish to end their own life, and … has made the decision that they wish to end their own life voluntarily and has not been coerced”.

Then, if one goes over the page to the conditions, there is Clause 8(1):

“A person who wishes to be provided with assistance … must make a declaration to that effect”.


The only concession made is in Clause 21 on the declaration. Clause 21(1) states:

“This section applies where a person intending to make a first declaration or a second declaration … declares to a proxy that they are unable to sign their own name”.


It allows a proxy to sign their name. The noble Baroness, Lady Berger, and I are both saying that it has to be you who does it, the person who wants it, the patient. My own view, having consulted on this, is that that is absolutely clear under the Bill and that the terms of the amendment would make absolutely no difference to it legally. I make clear that the policy intent that the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, wishes to achieve is exactly the policy intent that has been achieved.

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[Baroness Whitaker (Lab)]

My Lords, in connection with Amendment 30, I will just say, in a point of distinction to some of the speeches, that if I were interested in having an assisted death, part of the reason would most definitely be that I would not want to be a burden on my family. I have told my children this. They perfectly understand and I trust them to carry out my wishes. If I do not have any more pleasure in living, I most particularly do not want to add to the burden on my family. It seems to me that that is one of the perfectly good reasons to have an assisted death.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords, I will touch on Amendments 30, 56 and 57, the latter two to which I have attached my name. Before I launch into my arguments, it is, if I may say so, a delight for me to see the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, in her place after an unavoidable absence. She and I worked very closely when I was shadow Minister for Disabled People. I found her insight and lived experience, and her willingness to spend time with me on improving my knowledge of disability, extraordinarily helpful. I was grateful to her for the time that she was willing to spend. I am pleased to see her here in this important debate.

The latter contribution I thought was helpful. It goes to the heart of two issues: what the Bill is about and whether the promoters of the Bill are being entirely straightforward about what it is about. The Bill is called the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, and the primary requirement is that you have a terminal diagnosis. The arguments made for it are almost entirely around preventing people suffering or having physical pain. However, as has been pointed out, that is currently not anywhere a requirement in the legislation.

Sometimes supporters of the Bill do not make that argument. Instead, they focus on autonomy, as the noble Baroness, Lady Jay of Paddington, did this morning, or on choice, as the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, did in response to my challenging him on someone’s financial circumstances. We should be very straightforward. If the promoters of this Bill are arguing that it is entirely about somebody’s choice, they should be very straightforward about it. They should not argue that people have to be suffering and that this is about relieving it—which, as my noble friend Lady Fox said, is what compassionate and kind people think is the motivation for this legislation. If they think it should be open to anybody regardless of motivation, they should say so. It is very helpful when some of them are prepared to say that, because it makes what this is about more straightforward.

This goes to the heart of why many of us have concerns. We know this will get challenged in the courts and be expanded, because that has happened everywhere else. As I said earlier, the Minister keeps telling us about the human rights provisions. They will absolutely be used, if not to change what is in the Bill, to widen and challenge the regulations made under it. That is why so many of us want more safeguards on the face of it and not left to statutory instruments, which we know judges are very happy to change and strike down.

It will get expanded, so the proposed new clauses we have put down about the motivations are important. If it is about choice, it has to be a real choice. For people to have genuine choices, they cannot be forced by circumstance into making them. I was exercised with the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, earlier because somebody might have enormous pressures on them—financial, housing, feeling like a burden or, as others have said, wishing financial resources to go their families. Some think those are perfectly fine reasons for somebody to have an assisted suicide. I do not, and I think most members of the public do not think those are reasons for somebody to kill themselves or seek to have others help kill them. We should just be honest about it. If noble Lords think that is fine, they should say so and we will see whether that argument carries water.

People are not making that argument; it is about whether you are suffering. If noble Lords think that is the critical matter, they should put it in the Bill and make it so that you can get assistance with your suicide only if you are suffering and in pain, and that is the reason for your seeking this course of action. If it is one of the other things, we should rule it out. If you are not prepared to rule it out, it becomes clearer what this is really about.

That goes to the point made by my noble friend Lord Shinkwin and why so many of us have concerns. The remarks I made at Second Reading are absolutely highlighted by these amendments. Not a single organisation of or for disabled people supports this legislation, because they are concerned about two things. As my noble friend said, they are concerned that, because so many disabled people are made to feel that they are a burden or, because of the costs of their disability, have financial or housing pressures that others do not have, they will feel forced into seeking an assisted suicide when that is not really what they want. Secondly, they are concerned that, if society decides that it is okay for you to get help in ending your life because you feel you are a burden or do not want to cause problems for other people, that fundamentally changes how society treats and looks after disabled people. Instead of wanting them to live well and have great lives, and being prepared to find the resources for them to do so, we would rather they were not here. That is the message they are getting.

These groups of amendments make it very clear that this legislation is about alleviating suffering and pain; it is not about the other things. That is why I strongly support these amendments and I hope that, in his response, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, will recognise that those are the reasons why so many people take a different view from him, If he limited the provisions of the Bill to people who are in pain or suffering, it would reassure the many disabled people in this country who are terrified that the passage of this legislation will fundamentally alter their lives for the worse.

[Baroness Grey-Thompson (CB)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Harper; when he was a Minister, we had many interesting discussions, although they were possibly not as collaborative as those with my noble friend Lady Campbell. This group talks about motivation and I am sure we are going to be told that these people have terminal conditions and they are dying anyway. We have to understand, however, that there may be a number of other motivations that are part of this.

The noble Lord, Lord Harper, as a non-disabled person—I assume—highlighted many of the reasons why disabled people are very worried about this Bill. We look at what happens in other jurisdictions around the world, including Oregon, Washington, Belgium and Holland. Australia is one of the newer jurisdictions, having recently changed the law, and it has surprisingly high figures on the number of people who request assisted dying because they feel they are a burden. In western Australia in 2022-23, 35.3% of people who requested an assisted death did so because they felt they were a burden. In 2023-24, that figure was 32.2%.

We have to understand that, unfortunately, in the UK currently, the health and social care system is broken for many people. The fact that a person might not be able to get good social care, a job or access to work could add layer on layer to a reason why someone might request an assisted death.

I am told that it is not for disabled people, and I am not suggesting we draw up a list of every single condition of people who would qualify or not. I have spoken many times in the Chamber about how people assumed I would want to change the law because someone with my condition would probably rather be dead than alive. My condition is spina bifida. I assume that I would not be eligible for an assisted death because of that, but, if I got a pressure sore, I would very easily and quickly fit it into that six-month diagnosis.

I have lost many friends through pressure sores, one of whom I was in school with. She also had spina bifida and had a pressure sore on the base of her spine, and one problem with it developing so rapidly was that she did not feel it: she was paralysed and did not realise she had it. It was discovered by the smell. As soon as it was discovered, a number of people around suddenly started talking very differently about that young woman’s life: about how, basically, she would be better off dead, because it was never going to heal.

This is why disabled people are so fearful. If the law changes, it does not matter whether there is one doctor or two in the assessment process—which I do not believe is anywhere near strong enough currently. There will always be ableist doctors out there who would very quickly think and agree that we would be better off not being around.

Let us look at other jurisdictions and the number of people there who choose to end their lives. When I talk to people outside, they assume we are talking about cancer and leukaemia, not lots of other conditions. But in Belgium, for example, the official figures from last year show that 54% of people who requested an assisted death had cancer; 26.8%, however, had polypathology. Now, I am not a medic, so that sounds like an interesting combination of conditions. Actually, though, what is included in those figures is being tired of life.

This comes back to the debate we had in the previous group about the equality impact assessment. That is based on the first 10 years of Oregon, where the numbers were very low because there was no social media and people did not know about it. This provides more evidence of why the Government need to reconsider looking at the impact assessment to actually understand the numbers that might be involved. The noble Lord, Lord Harper, is absolutely right: we need to be honest about what we are doing here, not wrapping it up in euphemisms and easy soundbites. I have said consistently that, when you do an interview about the Bill, it is not easy to lay down every single reason in four minutes as to why a number of people have many concerns with the Bill.

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[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I am grateful to noble Lords who have contributed to this debate. I will make four quick preliminary points.

First, I join everybody in welcoming back the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton. The noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, and I have been debating this for at least 20 years, or maybe longer. It is very good that she is still with us and doing it in the same way.

Secondly, I mean no disrespect to the noble Baroness, Lady Monckton of Dallington Forest, but I will not deal with the points that she made because in a sense—and I quite understand why—they have nothing to do with these particular amendments, which she acknowledged. However, I am more than happy to talk to her about the process issues and I would welcome a conversation with her.

Thirdly, the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, asked whether it is a medical procedure and whether it is part of the range of treatments that have to be offered or discussed with the patient. In relation to whether it is a medical procedure, the noble Baroness will know that the Bill provides that the actual provision of assistance has to be given by a doctor. I do not know what the consequences are in relation to either the medical or the legal world, but that is the medical connection.

In relation to whether it has to be raised if it is a possible medical procedure, the answer is unequivocally not, because the Bill specifically provides in Clause 5(1) that:

“No registered medical practitioner is under any duty to raise the subject of the provision of assistance in accordance with this Act with a person”.


So the matter is put completely beyond doubt in the Bill.

I turn to the substance of the amendments, which fall into three categories. The first is the amendment ably moved by the noble Lord, Lord Weir, to the effect that certain motivations, if they exist, should ban or prohibit an assisted death. Secondly, an amendment says that the only circumstances in which you can have an assisted death are when you are acting for your own sake rather than for the benefit of others. The third category is where you are acting for the primary purpose of avoiding physical pain. All the amendments in this group are designed to try to limit it to certain permitted motivations only.

I want to adopt completely the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Markham, who described what the Bill is seeking to do: to give people who are diagnosed as having six months or less to live the choice about how their life ends in those six months. The choice they make may be motivated by a whole range of factors. The pain may be too much. They may not be able to bear the thought of being reliant on their children, not because they see themselves as a burden but because the whole change in the relationship is just unbearable. They may not want to go through that period while they await death and there is nothing else. They may find the whole sense that they are incurring expenditure for somebody else so awful for them that it makes them feel bad and they do not want to go through it.

I go through all those possibilities simply to indicate that the reasons why you may want an assisted death vary from person to person. From my own experience, it is very often what we would regard as pain and suffering that causes it, but what causes distress or unbearability to people is not always, and may not often be, the pain or the suffering; it is the whole circumstances in which they find themselves during that last six months.

There is an incredibly good article by somebody on what their mother, who had all the access to palliative care, said was awful about their circumstances. All the pain relief was there and everybody had come to say goodbye, but then weeks went by when there was nothing but staring at the wall in a period of not quite being able to engage with other people and wanting it to end. Would they qualify if, for example, pain and suffering was the requirement? No pain would be identified. The suffering would come from the unbearability of it.

The Bill is constructed on the basis that the person who has six months or less to live should have the choice. There are ideas to bring in these particular things. Do they feel they are a burden to somebody? Do financial considerations apply? They might well apply because there is only a limited amount of money to go around, so they might contribute. Is the panel or the doctor supposed to parse the precise part that every one of these motivations plays? In my view, that would be a very bad way of constructing the Bill. I am very happy to explain how I got there. I think it is a choice, and pain and suffering will often be the choice. If you are serious about putting the patient first, you have to give them the choice and not be in a position where you are trying to look into a whole range of multiple motivations.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

I am grateful to the noble and learned Lord for once again giving way. Can I just press him on this choice point? Although I do not agree with the Bill, there is an argument to be made for giving people a completely free choice, but does he accept that many people in society have many constraints on their ability to make choices? These amendments are trying to make sure they are making a free choice, not one that has been constrained by their other circumstances. Does the noble and learned Lord accept that it is a problem if someone has all these constraints on them and is not really making a free and unconstrained choice, which many people in this Committee would be able to make? Does he even accept that it is a problem that, although it may be difficult, potentially needs fixing?

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

It is very difficult and would be inappropriate to try to examine exactly why people make particular choices. Look at the first Amendment 30 proposal:

“not wanting to be a burden on others or on public services”.

Why does the thought that they are going to be a burden on their children become an unbearable thing for some people to go through? They might make that choice because of what has gone on in their lives, but it is totally inappropriate, impossible and wrong in a Bill such as this to say that we have to ask why they are in that position.

The next proposal refers to a mental disorder—

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[Lord Winston (Lab)]

Many years ago, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, introduced a similar Bill. I, very misguidedly, introduced an amendment to the title of the Bill; I suggested that the word “euthanasia” should be in the Bill. I did this without believing either that the Bill should pass or that it should fail—I was genuinely uncertain—but, earlier that week, I had talked to a 16 year-old schoolgirl in a school. In the short conversation we had, she asked, “Do you think we always feel that we have to go for and strive for perfection?” I found that very difficult to answer, so I pondered on it.

One of the issues here is exactly what the noble Lord, Lord Frost, has just shown. He tried to demonstrate that there are no absolute meanings of words. In that case, I used Greek, but this is something that we need to go beyond now. These words will mean different things to different people. We waste a lot of time doing this sort of meddling with language when it is unnecessary and when there is no issue with the legal quality of the Bill, which, of course, must be paramount. It is clear that the language we have at the moment is undoubtedly intelligible and largely workable.

[Lord Harper (Con)]

My Lords, let my start by picking up the point that was just made by the noble Lord, Lord Winston. We should be plain and simple in saying what is going on. In effect, the Bill’s central purposes are to amend the Suicide Act and to legalise somebody’s ability to assist someone else in killing themselves. We should be frank about that; that is what we are doing. If people find us being clear and speaking plainly about what we are doing either uncomfortable or distressing, that should make us pause and ask ourselves whether what we are doing is the right thing. We should not change the language to make the thing that we are doing more palatable. We should speak plainly about it then judge accordingly.

There are some real consequences. One of them was set out by my noble friend Lord Shinkwin when he referred to people with learning disabilities. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, will correct me if I have got this wrong, but I think that, when he gave evidence to the committee, he was clear that he wanted someone with a learning disability to have the same ability to access assisted suicide as anybody else, assuming that they meet the other eligibility criteria. My noble friend Lord Shinkwin put it very well when he said that people with learning disabilities need to have things explained in clear and straightforward language. That is really important.

In an earlier debate, my noble friend Lord Markham talked about relying on the experts, but we cannot do that because we know that they do not always make the right decision. We know that, during the Covid pandemic, many people with learning disabilities were given “Do not resuscitate” notices because some people had made the decision that their lives were not as worthwhile as others. People made decisions about them that they would not have made about somebody who did not have a learning disability. It is important that we make sure that the language we use about this decision, which could not be more important, is understandable and that the consequences are understandable for everybody who will be impacted by such a decision. My noble friend Lord Shinkwin made that point well.

My noble friend Lord Frost has already made the point about the use of the phrase “committing suicide”; I reflected on it before I signed his amendment. Personally, I do not like using that phrase—the “commit” piece, not the “suicide” piece—so I paused before I signed his amendment. However, I thought that having a debate and pressing on clarity was important. Obviously, we are in Committee. If my noble friend were to bring forward these amendments on Report, I would want to work with him on the language. I think that removing “commit” would be better because, as my noble friend correctly said, the Suicide Act has removed that vocabulary.

But using the word “suicide” is accurate. Just because somebody has a terminal illness, that does not mean that in taking their own life they are not committing suicide. It is important because it gets through to people the consequence of what we are doing here and the fundamental reshaping we are doing to the way in which society looks at this. That is why so many of us are concerned about it.