Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Naz Shah Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 11th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dame Karen Bradley]

I have enormous respect for the previous Minister, who I have worked closely with, but the point she is making about suicide of women who were victims of domestic abuse is a separate matter. For women to feel that they have nowhere else to go other than to commit suicide, is the most outrageous and horrendous situation, and we absolutely have to tackle and work on that. But this Bill is not the solution to that problem.

[Naz Shah (Bradford West) (Lab)]

I speak as a survivor of domestic violence and as a survivor of an attempted suicide many years ago, while campaigning about domestic violence. Does the right hon. Lady agree that coercion is not always external? Coercion can also be internal—“Am I a burden on my family?”, “Can they afford to look after me?” That coercion is not picked up on in training, because it comes from deep inside when a person is vulnerable and at their lowest ebb.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Opher]

No, I will carry on if that is okay.

It is a great thing to offer end-of-life care and palliative care. In 2010, the UK system for palliative care was at the level of the best in the world, yet still people went to Dignitas. Still, 600 people who were suffering from terminal diagnosis killed themselves. Indeed, in Oregon, 92% of patients who opted for assisted dying were receiving good palliative care. They are different things.

[Naz Shah]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Dr Opher]

I am going to carry on; I will be very brief.

There has been a lot of concern—quite rightly—about disabled people and people from black and Asian minorities and whether they will be harshly dealt with. In fact, the evidence from other jurisdictions is that these people do not go for assisted dying—it is actually a white, middle-class, able-bodied thing—so in a way we have the opposite problem to deal with.

Let me also say, to answer a point made earlier, that studies done in California showed that where people with terminal illness and depression were treated for their depression, it made no difference to their choice on assisted dying. Assisted dying is different because, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Dr Prinsley) said, it is a choice not between life and death, but between someone’s death from natural causes and death under their own control. I say to all hon. Members that we have a choice to make in five or ten minutes, but we must give other people that choice. Is it our right to deny those people that choice? I will end my remarks as Madam Deputy Speaker is giving me some black looks.