"As the noble Baroness herself said, we debated both deprivation of liberty and the Mental Capacity Act and its use extensively—I think it was on 14 November—and I believe the sponsor, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, agreed to look at extra safeguards around deprivation of liberty, being aware …..." Lord Markham - View Speech
"If I may say—I hope, like my noble friend, in the spirit of helpfulness—this has been a thoughtful debate, and we all want the best decision-making framework for these decisions. I am definitely not going to pretend that I have personal expertise as to what the best decision-making framework is. …..." Lord Markham - View Speech
"Where that clarity can exist then that clearly must be the right thing, but my understanding of the many amendments that have been tabled is that a lot of them seek to replace the Mental Capacity Act with a new decision-making process, which, inevitably, is not tried and tested and …..." Lord Markham - View Speech
"A large number of psychiatrists are absolutely of the view that they do not want a new framework. They wrote to MPs saying that the Mental Capacity Act was totally relevant in all this. I am not saying that I personally know what is best. I am just trying to …..." Lord Markham - View Speech
"Building on from that, that is correct: there are two different approaches here. There are those among us who believe that choice should come first, and within that choice there should obviously be protections and safeguards. Then there are those people who have equally very firm beliefs that the restrictions …..." Lord Markham - View Speech
"I will make just one point. My noble friend mentioned that this was opposed by every one of the groups. Again, we took evidence from all these groups. The position is that they are neutral on it, because their memberships are split on it. The Royal College of Nursing and …..." Lord Markham - View Speech
"Not yet anyway. Just this week we saw Elon Musk forecast an AI world of abundance, where robots outnumber people and people work only a few hours a week—I am wondering where I sign up for that. Who knows whether he is right or wrong but undoubtedly there will be …..." Lord Markham - View Speech
"To follow on from that, as my noble friend said right at the beginning, the amendment was put down in such a blunt fashion absolutely to stimulate this sort of debate. What has been really useful in this debate is finding that there is a broad degree of consensus that …..." Lord Markham - View Speech
"I too thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, for bringing this serious issue in front of us today. Like others, I wish we had more time, but I think this shows the Lords at its best. We have had technology know-how, regulatory expertise, philosophy, religious wisdom—we have even learned that …..." Lord Markham - View Speech
"Given that I did not write any of the manifestos, I am not sure I can say. If I was writing them, it is something that I would probably put in. It is something that everyone agrees is one of personal choice, like many other issues, and of course that …..." Lord Markham - View Speech