Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Earl of Arran Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 22nd October 2021 Lords Chamber

[The Earl of Arran (Con)]

My Lords, this House has now debated assisted dying on very many occasions, whether it has been through the legislative efforts of the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, or the late Lord Joffe. I was very privileged to examine the issue closely when I served on one of your Lordships’ Select Committees on assisted dying more than 15 years ago, chaired by my noble and learned friend Lord Mackay of Clashfern. We went to Oregon and northern Europe, which included going to Dignitas, since when I have spoken on assisted dying on many occasions. On each occasion, we have had lengthy debates in which your Lordships agreed that the law that we have now is not working as well as it could be; then the issue is left to drop through lack of time.

In each debate, the Lords spiritual warned us that assisted dying was not the right law for this country, in the full knowledge that their own congregations took the opposite view. Members of Parliament can be accused of not listening to their constituents; might not the same apply to our Anglican clergy—an accusation of not listening to their flock, 84% of whom support a change in the law? I do not believe that there are many Members of your Lordships’ House who sincerely believe that assisted dying is anything but inevitable. Many Members have told us this afternoon of other parts of the world where it has been made legally possible in the six years since the Bill of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer.

With the passing of every year, more and more people will die in unnecessary pain and suffering in this country. More and more jurisdictions will have the courage to legislate that we so sorely lack. Indeed, it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that both Scotland and Ireland might also legislate, thus leaving little England and Wales stuck in the middle. Unless we are able to progress this legislation, we will continue to squander the opportunity to craft a sensible, compassionate law fit for the 21st century. Several of the great humanitarian Bills—such as the homosexual reform Bill and the Abortion Bill 1967—were extremely controversial at the time. They had their imperfections, but the public and society as a whole eventually urged them onto the statute book.

God did not intend mankind to suffer unnecessarily. The Assisted Dying Bill is a Christian Bill, and clearly legislates for the overwhelming need for kindness and compassion in a very frail and vulnerable world. It is a world that none of us asked to enter, but perhaps a world in which we might have the choice of how we depart from it. Humbly, this Bill needs to happen.