Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Nusrat Ghani Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 11th September 2026 Commons Chamber

Second Reading

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I remind Members that it is not customary to impose a speech limit on private Members’ Bills, but I hope that after the Member in charge of the Bill and the speaker after that, Members will restrict themselves to about seven to eight minutes in the first instance; that includes taking interventions. I may need to ask for further shorter speeches to enable more Members to contribute. I should make it clear that the Chair retains the right to impose a formal speech limit, but I would rather colleagues helped each other, especially on a day like today.

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[Lauren Edwards]

No, I will not give way. I will make some progress—[Interruption.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. The Member has made clear that she is not taking interventions at this point.

[Lauren Edwards]

As has been mentioned, the Bill has been subject to hundreds of hours of scrutiny, and amendments have been made to strengthen its safeguards, but that does not mean it cannot be strengthened further. As with any Bill, it will benefit from additional scrutiny. The Bill before us today already includes an important clarification on eating disorders that was agreed without a vote in the House of Lords last time. Together with the co-sponsor of the Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Falconer, who is in the Gallery today, I have recently met representatives from medical bodies and hospice organisations to discuss further amendments that could be made in the other place.

[Gavin Robinson]

I am very grateful to the hon. Lady for allowing me to intervene. She mentions that the Government have a responsibility to ensure this legislation is lawful and workable, yet she is the Bill’s sponsor—that responsibility rests on her, too. Yet despite knowing that the Bill’s sponsor in the previous Session brought forward over 30 amendments and eight new clauses of her own and the Bill’s sponsor in the Lords brought forward 77—a recognition that the Bill is manifestly unworkable—she has chosen not to amend her Bill. What is before us today is for a political—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Order. Interventions must be short.

[Lauren Edwards]

I disagree with the position that any time we amend a Bill in this place, it is ultimately deficient and unworkable. That is not how it works. All I am asking the Chamber to do today is to send the Bill back to the House of Lords so it can continue its work, which was interrupted, of scrutinising the Bill.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

More than 90 Members are trying to catch my eye. I can maximise contributions only if colleagues keep their speeches to around six or seven minutes.

[Claire Hazelgrove (Filton and Bradley Stoke) (Lab)]

Today I am going to share the most personal of stories publicly for the first time, and I ask for the kindness of colleagues in not intervening so that I can.

Last October, my mum, Ruth Hazelgrove, chose to bring her late-stage terminal illness to an end, on her terms, at home, with dignity and with a strength that I can only try to imagine. Mum had just turned 61. She had endured significant health challenges for almost half her life. When mum was 32, she was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer, polycythaemia vera. Thankfully, she was able to see us grow up and meet her grandchildren. Mum loved life and laughter, and our family will remember her this way.

In early 2024, mum was told that her condition had taken a significant turn. That autumn, while we debated the initial version of this Bill, her pain was excruciating. She had access to good palliative care, but what we learned the hardest of ways is that not all pain can be palliated. I will never forget seeing her writhing and screaming in pain, at points for weeks. None of us will. I know of no deity that would want that. Eventually, some medication helped her leave hospital, but it then became less effective over time.

For mum, it was not a choice of life or death; it was a question of what kind of death she would have. She was clear that she did not want a painful or undignified death. She wanted peace. For us, it will always be a tremendous personal sadness that the current law meant that she could not tell us her plan, and we could not say goodbye to her—but more importantly than that, that she could not say goodbye at the end of her life, or be surrounded by her loved ones, which is what she would have wanted for her death.

Instead, the harmful status quo meant that mum died alone, with photos of us around her. This was 11 months ago either today or tomorrow—we will never know whether she died late one evening or early the next morning, or whether we are ever marking the anniversary on the right day. This is the status quo. This needs to change. That is why our vote today and our work on this issue is so important now. People with terminal illnesses, and those who will be diagnosed with them soon, matter greatly. If we were again to leave this issue to another Parliament, it would be too late for other people with terminal illnesses who want this provision, but instead face the same impossible bind as my mum; they would continue to face it well into the 2030s, at best.

An excruciating death or dying alone is simply not an acceptable bind for a human being. To allow choice does not impose an outcome, but to continue to restrict it does. In part of mum’s last note to us, which is why I am speaking today, she wrote,

“I wish the Assisted Dying Bill would have come into force in my lifetime…Maybe there will be hope for others in the future.”

Ultimately, is it not what Parliament is for to provide safeguards and freedom? I believe that we are here not to dictate how people live their lives and their deaths, but to enable safe individual choice. Today’s vote is on whether we should continue to work on this, or not at all. I ask right hon. and hon. Members to ask themselves if they feel that this impact of the status quo is right, is just.

My hope, and I know my mum’s hope, is that her story can help us choose to end this harmful status quo and see terminally ill adults finally have true choice over their lives and their deaths.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call the Father of the House.

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[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Looking around the Chamber, I see many Members wishing to contribute. In case I did not make myself clear, I urge colleagues to keep their contributions to five minutes or less; otherwise, I will be forced to put a speaking limit in place.

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[Several hon. Members rose—]

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Order. Members can help each other by keeping their speeches to five minutes.