Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Lord Finkelstein Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 22nd October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Finkelstein (Con)]

My Lords, may I congratulate the noble Baroness on a characteristically excellent maiden speech? When she was first elected leader of the Scottish Conservative party, I confess I had ignorantly never heard of her. I saw the story online and shouted across the leader writers’ department of the Times, “Is this one any good, then?” And someone shouted back, “No.” This turned out to be one of the worst political judgments I have ever encountered. This House has just acquired a charismatic, robust, independent-minded and acute new Member, and I have just acquired a prized ally in the House for the cause of modern Conservatism. We should all be—and we all are—delighted.

I would like to make two connected points. The first is that it is grimly amusing that proponents of assisted dying are accused of using a euphemism by people who themselves wish to employ euphemisms such as “assisted suicide” or “euthanasia”. It is like the man called Albert Death who asked to change his name. The registrar said, “What would you like to be called instead?” He replied, “I think David Death.” What those who object to assisted dying really mean is that they think helping a dying person with their wish to die peacefully is murder or killing and the people who do it should always be prosecuted. They should be willing to say so—and all but my noble friend Lady Fraser do not appear willing to say so. The reason they do not use the words “murder” or “killing” is that it would reveal how radical their proposal is. They believe that those who take their relatives abroad or help a desperate relative with their dying wish are murderers.

The arguments used against this Bill are the same as the arguments against the Crown Prosecution Service using discretion. We, by contrast, make a moderate proposal. We accept that it is both compassionate and, as the noble Baroness, Lady Blackstone, pointed out, inevitable that dying people receive the assistance they want. But we wish to bring it inside the law. It is we who are insisting that people receive protection from being pressured into ending their lives prematurely, we who are insisting that the rights and protections be legally clear, we who want to be sure that professional medical advice and checks are available, and we who want to be sure that the same rights are available to all, regardless of income.

What happens now, in answer to the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, is that there are checks and safeguards on whether your relatives have pressurised you or accelerated your death against your will—but these checks take place only after you are dead. Perhaps it is just me who thinks this, but checking after I am dead seems like checking at a suboptimal moment. We are bringing inside the law something that is outside the law. What more modest and appropriate change could there be?