Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Lord Aberdare Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 22nd October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Aberdare (CB)]

My Lords, I support the Bill, above all as a matter of choice. I congratulate my noble friend Lady Meacher on introducing it.

If I was in the situation covered by the Bill, with little time left, no worthwhile quality of life and nothing to look forward to beyond intolerable pain and misery, both for myself and my family, I would want the option of seeking help to die, even though I might not take it. Merely having this choice would make it less likely that I would use it. I hope I never find myself in this position, but I have been greatly moved by the harrowing experiences of so many who have, including close members of my family, and of course by many of the stories we have heard from noble Lords today, including recently from the noble Lords, Lord O’Donnell and Lord Butler, and the noble Baroness, Lady Meyer.

For me, the question then is whether the Bill might have undesirable consequences. It applies only when someone has an incurable condition, is dying, wants to be helped to die and has the mental capacity to make that decision. My view of our medical and judicial services is not so jaundiced as to believe that two doctors and a High Court judge could easily be misled in assessing this. The Bill’s safeguards seem comprehensive, transparent and robust, and would create a situation in some respects less likely to result in suicides and other premature deaths than exists today. Of course, they would need full scrutiny and review as the Bill goes through and afterwards.

Like other noble Lords, I have had several hundred emails and letters on both sides of the argument—from doctors, both for and against, from people with disabilities, both for and against, and from people of faith, both for and against. I believe that everyone in our society should have the right to make intensely personal decisions such as this themselves, of course with input from those they love or trust. I add that not wishing to be a burden to one’s loved ones in one’s dying days seems to me a perfectly respectable consideration for a dying person to take into account.

Having thought deeply about the issue, considered carefully everything I have read and heard, not least today, spoken to doctors and others about their views and, finally, consulted my conscience, as many of the letters I received enjoined me to do, I can only conclude that the merits of the Bill, limited as it is, sufficiently outweigh the arguments against it for it to deserve to proceed, preferably with government assistance, as urged by the noble Baroness, Lady Mallalieu, and, of course, with full scrutiny and amendment.

Few minds will be changed today, but I ask opponents of the Bill to consider whether it is right to deny the wishes of a clear, consistent and growing majority of people who have expressed their views on this issue. The experience of other countries that have already moved in this direction is reassuring, and I hope we shall take the first step today towards following them. To quote just one of the letters I have received, “It really is time we did something to help all those terminally ill to make their own choices.”