Assisted Dying Bill [HL]

Lord Taverne Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 22nd October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Taverne (LD)]

My Lords, there have been substantial changes since the last time this subject was discussed in this House. One of the most important has been the changed attitudes of the professional organisations. How extensive this is is significant. Earlier this year, the British Medical Association moved to a neutral position on assisted dying, and that reflects the position of similar medical bodies, including the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal Society of Medicine, the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and many others.

Now, why have they changed their position? One letter, signed by a number of eminent people, suggested that it was because they no longer felt they should oppose the views of not only their members but their patients. Of course, we know how extensive public opinion supports the Bill.

In the past and, indeed, in the present, it has been strongly argued that palliative care is the answer to the problems we face. However, as eminent members of the profession, including a former president of the BMA, observed in an email that other noble Lords may also have received, we now know that palliative care is no panacea. Many previous speakers have also shown why this is so. The Office of Health Economics published a study in 2019 which found that in Britain 17 people a day would have no relief from their pain as they died even if there was universal access to specialist palliative care, which, of course, there is not. We all much appreciate palliative care, of course, but we must take this into account.

If the Bill is passed, no one, even if they have the money, will need to make the traumatic journey to Dignitas in Switzerland—traumatic particularly for those who accompany them. As they all want, those who now go to Switzerland will be able to die at home and people will be able to ask a doctor to supply them with a lethal dose—a vital change to avoid people making a botched attempt at suicide, which can have the most appalling and catastrophic consequences. It promotes the case for autonomy, as was very powerfully put by Professor Grayling and other noble Lords, including the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley of Knighton. One should have control of one’s own life. This is a humane Bill, which, however, needs one improvement: to add as beneficiaries those who suffer incurably as well as those about to die.