Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Baroness Lister of Burtersett Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 22nd October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lister of Burtersett (Lab)]

My Lords, I will speak in support of the Bill, focusing on the implications for disabled people. I find it difficult taking a stance in opposition to that of disabled colleagues, such as the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, whom I think of as a friend; but I genuinely believe that this Bill is not a threat to disabled people, a view strongly endorsed in an email from a group of disability rights campaigners, including Professor Tom Shakespeare, whose work I respect. Moreover, contrary to some claims, most disability rights organisations are not opposed to assisted dying. We must not blur the lines between a dying person and a disabled person. Disabled people would not be eligible for assistance under the proposed law unless they were also terminally ill, expected to die within six months, and of sound mind.

As we have heard, the law in Victoria, Australia, was crafted with the help of prominent members of the disability community. One of them, Tricia Malowney, observed:

“The concerns of the disability community have been met, through the inclusion in the bill that merely having a disability will not meet the eligibility criteria, an acknowledgment that all lives have equal value and that we have the same rights and responsibilities as other Victorians.”


I wonder whether the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, would consider an amendment that gave the same assurances.

With regards to the claim that assisted dying laws will lead to disabled people being pressured into choosing to die, I am sure that disabled colleagues would agree that we should exercise caution when labelling disabled people as inherently vulnerable. The disability campaigners who emailed made clear that they

“do not want people making decisions for us or about us, and that includes when the time comes, how we end our lives.”

Disability Rights Oregon has not received a single complaint about assisted dying, despite it having been legal in Oregon for nearly 25 years. More widely, systematic reviews have examined the uptake of assisted dying among those deemed vulnerable, including disabled people. One concluded that the hypothesis that disabled people face a disproportionate threat

“does not seem to be borne out.”

The Bill’s safeguards are more robust than current end-of-life practices and certainly more so than the process by which we outsource death to Dignitas or turn a blind eye to dying people ending their own lives behind closed doors.

While I have received many emails opposing the Bill—most, it would seem, via the Right To Life organisation—I have also received many moving letters begging me to support it. I will end by quoting from one of them:

“The motivation to change the law is the very real anguish faced by people with terminal illnesses as they anticipate intolerable suffering and the indignity of the final few days and weeks of their lives. While the suffering and indignity can be partly ameliorated that final period remains a profound concern to many people.”


We have the opportunity to try to end that suffering and indignity. We should take it.