Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 22nd October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Lab)]

My Lords, assisted dying is a very emotive and sensitive issue, with deeply held views on all sides of the debate, as has been characterised by our debate over many hours today. In many ways, this debate is driven by compassion, but for me it is about the sanctity of human life and those who wish to have the choice of assisted dying in very personal, very sick circumstances.

My fear is that the Bill will damage palliative care. I have experience, through family circumstances, of palliative care and its great value. I been contacted by the representative group for palliative medicine consultants in Northern Ireland, which sees this proposed legislation as presenting risks to patient safety, saying that it will damage patient safety, is in direct conflict with palliative care and is damaging to society, which is working hard to reduce the frequency of suicide within communities. Although this legislation does not extend to Northern Ireland, no doubt it will have unintended consequences, as will the contents of the Bill, with the lack of safeguards and protections.

Over the past half a century, we have responded to the challenge of human suffering at the end of life principally through palliative care. It has advanced to the point where those who practice it well believe that they can ease pain and control symptoms effectively in nearly every case, and I have seen many examples of that. There are some here today who will argue, and have argued, that assisted suicide can sit alongside this speciality without compromising it. I beg to differ. It is not what palliative care specialists are telling us. In fact, an interesting point was made in broadsheet recently:

“This would be a seismic shift in the way in which patients are cared for and one that we are not prepared to have any part of. Every conversation with a dying patient would be altered and assisted suicide would need to be discussed. Having to include assisted dying in a list of management plans would fundamentally alter the dynamic in the patient-doctor relationship and destroy the trust that is so essential to our work. Offering someone the option to die is akin to saying that we do not value their life, or feel that it may not be worth living”.


I cannot support the Bill.