Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Neil Hudson Excerpts

Friday 16th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rebecca Paul]

I agree, and I will come to that point in more detail in the second half of my speech.

[Dr Neil Hudson (Epping Forest) (Con)]

With regard to these amendments, we are so blessed to have our precious NHS. At vital stages, the NHS quite rightly delivers care in obstetrics, gynaecology, neonatology and paediatrics, but at the end of life about 70% of care is delivered outside the NHS, largely by charities, and that figure is even higher for children’s palliative and hospice care—so the state pays for how we enter this life, but not for how we depart it. There is something deeply wrong about that for our society. Does my hon. Friend agree that surely we must address that, and the delivery of universal palliative and hospice care, before we go anywhere near the measures in this assisted dying Bill?

[Rebecca Paul]

My hon. Friend makes a good point, and I agree. In the interests of time, I will make some progress.

The current situation, whereby fully funded palliative and end-of-life care is not available in certain postcodes, means that those unfortunate patients do not have a real choice. We know that 25% of people who die in this country do not get the palliative care they need—that is more than 100,000 people a year—and if the Bill goes through, they will be offered a fully funded assisted death as the only reliable way to end their pain. That is no choice. I urge Members who want to see improvements in palliative and end-of-life care to vote for my amendment 80, and for amendments 30 and 31, tabled by my hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge, if they are pushed to a vote.