Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Lord Suri Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 22nd October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Suri (Con)]

My Lords, I refer to the Assisted Dying Bill debated in the House of Lords on 16 January 2015, when my noble friend Lord Tebbit sought to settle the matter at hand by quoting the generally accepted definition of suicide from the Oxford English Dictionary:

“suicide, n. The … act of taking one’s own life, self-murder”.

He went on to say:

“Can we settle the matter now?”—[Official Report, 16/01/15; col. 1017.]


Suicide is just not self-murder. It is more than that: it is a crime against our maker, almighty God, and nature. This should not be the choice of the terminally ill patient. We have to accept the will of almighty God. The holy scripture of Sikhism says that whosoever has come into this world has to go on their allotted day. Terminology and technicalities should not be the ammunition to carry out the execution.

We are obliged on moral grounds to prevent assisted dying and should not aid a terminally person wishing to die by facilitating them to give away the right to administer their own death. We should not use feelings and compassion as the catalyst in deciding to take the life of a terminally ill patient.

Progress in every industry is continuously being made through new inventions and ideas, whether it is medical, engineering or the quest to travel further into the galaxy. It should be of paramount interest for medical science to adhere to and honour human morals in the pursuit to stop assisted dying and endorse research into developing ways to improve a terminally ill person’s quality of life and reduce suffering—the preservation of life as opposed to the termination of it.

We should not take advantage of somebody’s vulnerability and interfere with the psychological implications of assisted dying, which have an impact on not just the patient but those who care for them, be they family, friends or carers. We do not have the right to take anyone’s life. That is a decision taken by God only. Medical ethics do a great service to society; they have always protected life and endeavoured to prolong it. The taking of a human life in any way is morally, ethically, religiously and humanistically wrong. Dignity in dying should be respected in all circumstances, as I have read in the many letters and emails I have received.