Debates between Simon Hoare and Caroline Spelman during the 2015-2017 Parliament

Assisted Dying (No. 2) Bill

Debate between Simon Hoare and Caroline Spelman
Friday 11th September 2015

(9 years, 3 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Simon Hoare Portrait Simon Hoare
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rose

Caroline Spelman Portrait Mrs Spelman
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I should like to make a bit more progress before I give way.

Assisted dying should be the absolute exception, not the rule. In practice, the law as it stands has seldom been used to convict anyone for assisting someone else to die. Strong laws protect vulnerable people. The existing law protects the elderly, the disabled and those who might otherwise feel pressured to die. It is difficult to prove definitively that someone has not been coerced. It would be almost impossible to pass a law that could definitively prove one way or another whether an elderly person had been coerced.