Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Tim Farron Excerpts

Report stage
Friday 13th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Rebecca Smith]

On the first point, I do not believe that the Bill is strong enough as it stands. On the second point, we are already dealing with the fact that families are not even guaranteed knowledge of their loved one having an assisted death, so I do not think the hon. Lady’s point is entirely to be considered.

As it stands, the Bill would disapply the duty of the coroner to investigate in the case of an assisted death that has been carried out in accordance with the Bill’s provisions. New clause 15, specifically, would amend the Coroners and Justice Act to clarify that assisted death does not constitute “unnatural death” for the purposes of the Act. I think it takes an extraordinary leap of imagination not to conceive of deliberately self-administering lethal drugs as anything but an unnatural death.

[Tim Farron (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way; I want to support her in what she is saying. We are going through a process, as we consider the appalling situation of coercive control in domestic abuse cases, where a person who is a victim may not realise they have been a victim until years later. Obviously, a person who has gone through an assisted death will have no years later. Is the amendment not a way of making sure that we guard against the evil of coercive control?

[Rebecca Smith]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention and I completely agree with him. These are the sorts of safeguards that even the promoter of the Bill is saying should be there. I do not think that they are in the Bill and my amendment to new clause 15 would make them much stronger.

--- Later in debate ---

Over the past months, I have tabled amendments that I thought would help get the Bill—if it becomes law—to a point of ensuring that the most vulnerable are protected. My amendments 19 and 20 would work to edit the code of practice for the Bill to ensure that there is clear guidance with regard to doctors’ duties, suicide prevention, article 2 on the protection of human life, and interaction with the Mental Health Act. The Bill is currently blind on what to do with people detained in hospital and patients presenting with suicidal thoughts. I have great concerns that many people who are quite unwell psychologically will start presenting to services seeking an “assisted death” rather than presenting with suicidal ideation.

[Tim Farron]

I will not be the only person in this place who has lost someone they loved to suicide. In listening to what has been said recently by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which is not opposed to the Bill in principle, the penny dropped for many of us that many people given a terminal diagnosis will have mental health issues that come with that. How does the hon. Member think we can distinguish between a person who chooses to end their own life because of a mental health issue caused by despair from having a terminal illness and somebody who wants to end their life because of despair caused by something else? Does that not blur our approach to the importance and sanctity of life and to preventing suicide in every circumstance?

[Dr Spencer]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. Of course, these are difficult things to disentangle. People will say, “You would say this, wouldn’t you, Ben?”, but we should get the person in front of a psychiatrist or a clinical nurse specialist working in psychiatry. This is what psychiatry does; this is what it is about. That is why I tabled amendments to ensure that the person is put in front of a psychiatrist as part of the process to deal with the blind spot. [Interruption.] Apologies, Madam Deputy Speaker; I will finish now.

My amendment would ensure that the code of practice clarifies the interaction with services.

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[Sir John Hayes]

I am afraid that I disagree. There are numerous cases where people will be encouraged, and perhaps even forced, to take a decision, when they are coping with illness and at their most vulnerable—when they are frightened, doubtful and distressed, and may be unbalanced. Of course we have to protect against that eventuality if the Bill is to be passed.

[Tim Farron]

On that point, evidence from exit interviews shows that 35% of people choosing an assisted death in Canada and 47% in Oregon listed as their reason for doing so that they felt they were a burden to their family.

[Sir John Hayes]

The hon. Gentleman anticipated what I was about to say; I have cited exactly that evidence many times during the debate. We need to look at the experience elsewhere to inform what we do here. We always do that when we pass the right laws in this place.

There is worse news than that, because rather than being improved during its passage, the Bill has in many ways got worse, in particular by giving additional powers to Ministers—so-called Henry VIII powers. When the two words “delegated legislation” are mentioned in this place, we should always be fearful; when the words “ministerial discretion” are used, be doubly fearful. I said that looking directly at Government Front-Bench Members, but I could have been looking at the Conservative Front Bench. The Bill gives permissive powers to Government to make all kinds of changes. I want to take some of those to illustrate my point.

The Bill empowers Ministers to amend the Suicide Act, including the offence of encouraging suicide. They can rewrite the principles of the NHS, in section 1 of the National Health Service Act, to read, “secure improvement in the mental health of the people of England and Wales and end the lives of the terminally ill”. They can amend the NHS Act to specify that this service is not free of charge. The Bill points only to the section of the National Health Service Act that says,

“services to be provided free of charge except where charging expressly provided for”.

They can amend the definition of a registered medical practitioner, so it is not a doctor carrying out the assessment. And so on and so forth.

That is why the amendment in the name of the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh) is so vital. The speech she gave was among the best speeches I have heard in this House. The passion she feels for vulnerable people and the difference the NHS makes to them is not only felt on the Labour Benches, as she well knows, regardless of the theatre. We all come to this place to ensure that the least fortunate have a voice; that those with less power are given a little more by our advocacy.

In conclusion, I say to the hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) that there has never been any doubt about the depth of her piety. Let us now be sure about the breadth of her mind. If she really wants the Bill to be passed in a way that is palatable, then she must surely accept the amendments I have supported and highlighted in this brief—all too brief—contribution.