My Lords, does the Minister agree that the individual needs of autistic people vary hugely and that individually agreed reasonable adjustments are essential to enable people to succeed in the workplace?
My Lords, of course prevention is important, but does the noble Baroness agree that children with foetal alcohol spectrum disorder need continuing specialist education and support throughout life, as do their families, many of whom of course are adoptive families?
My Lords, I am one of the newbies the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, referred to, although I have not spent time in government—I have spent a lot of time in local government and a brief time in the European Parliament. Noble Lords will note that I have spoken only twice during the debate—I made one subst…
My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lady Cass on her excellent speech. I am going to speak to my Amendments 667A, 680, 681A and 848C which seek to ensure that any healthcare professional who wishes to participate in assisted dying under this Bill may do so only by formally and voluntarily choos…
The noble Baroness may have misunderstood. I spoke about dual accreditation, which could apply to any doctor from any specialty who wished to obtain the necessary training and accreditation to be able to contribute on this issue.
My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Scriven, for bringing forward this Question for Short Debate. I acknowledge his very personal connection to this topic and echo the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Ramsey of Wall Heath, in paying tribute to his powerful opening speech. I also express…
My Lords, I commend the introduction to this group by the noble Baroness, Lady Fraser. At the end of a person’s life, clear and honest communication really matters. When my husband was dying—he had motor neurone disease—he increasingly relied on AACs to communicate. This did indeed test everyone’s p…
My Lords, as the noble Baroness, Lady Browning, is not in her place, she has asked me to introduce her Amendment 538, to which I added my name. It simply says that it would require the Secretary of State to consult
“disability rights organisations and the Equality and Human Rights Commission”
befo…
My Lords, I had prepared a longer speech but I will speak very briefly as most of the points that I wanted to make have been made. Of course, I do not want to see women unduly prosecuted, but I was reassured by the wise remarks in Committee of my noble friend Lord Hogan-Howe, suggesting that the ada…
My Lords, I fully endorse the amendments from my noble friend Lady Finlay, and I think they deserve rereading. There has been a huge misunderstanding of what she actually described. This was not something drafted on the back of an envelope: it is based on years of work spent thinking about how it co…
My Lords, when a doctor, the very person entrusted to preserve life and relieve suffering, raises the possibility of assisted dying, it is no longer a neutral act. For some people, particularly those who are depressed, isolated or overwhelmed, the mere introduction of the possibility of an assisted …
My Lords, I added my name to Amendment 87, which details the exclusion of those with diagnosed eating disorders from accessing assisted dying, because I consider this a tricky area deserving of very careful debate. There are serious and specific risks that the Bill poses to people with anorexia nerv…
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow my noble friend, who has presented a different approach to assessing capacity. I was a member of the post-legislative scrutiny committee on the Mental Capacity Act. Both in my professional capacity as a learning disability psychiatrist and as a family carer, I ha…
My Lords, like my noble friend Lord Roe, it is an honour and a privilege to make my maiden speech today. Just over three weeks have passed since my introduction to this House. I have a sense of awe and pride at the history of this House but also the knowledge of how I have encountered Members from a…
As I said at the outset, I will endeavour to answer all questions, but where I do not have an answer, particularly where I want to look at them in closer detail, I will be very pleased to write, of course, as always.
Still turning to Malta—which is a pleasure—let me say straight away that we do hav…
My Lords, I will speak to Amendment 75, which I have added my name to. It addresses probably the most decisive yet hardest to confirm clinical issue, and is central to the Bill.
Prognosis is not determined by diagnosis alone. Throughout my career as a doctor, I have seen many patients whose disease…
My Lords, I support and have added my name to Amendment 771ZA, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Mackinlay, which would prevent the assisted dying service being part of the NHS. I agree with the points made by my noble friend Lord Stevens.
Integration into mainstream healthcare appears to normali…
My Lords, for the purposes of the point I am making, I am going to proceed on the assumption that was put forward by the sponsors that the drugs used for an assisted death are to be treated as a healthcare intervention, although I do not accept that this assumption is correct. If that assumption is …
My Lords, I have added my name to several of my noble friend’s amendments and I would like to congratulate him on finding a solution that could allow the Bill to meet one of the sponsors’ original aspirations. The impact of Amendments 25 and 120 are many. One that may be attractive to the Committee …
My Lords, when I first read this Bill, I realised that there was something important missing—a first stage, if you like. This group of amendments is probably one of the most important to address before the Bill can really make progress. Ther Bill, in its drafting, has perhaps failed to recognise the…
I hope that the noble and learned Lord gets an opportunity to reply to this debate, but I wondered whether I could ask what is perhaps the daft laddie question. Is he, or are the Government Front Bench, able to tell us how many days and what dates they think will be required for the Bill to get thro…
My Lords, I would like to comment on this group in response to what the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, has just said.
In its recent briefing for Peers, the Royal College of Psychiatrists gave its view:
“Assessors should be required to take all practicable steps to work with professionals i…
My Lords, I welcome the comments from the noble and learned Lord. General practice is very different today from when I practised as a GP earlier in my career; it was certainly not as part of a multidisciplinary team.
I added my name to the very reasonable Amendment 21 tabled by my noble friend Lady…
My Lords, I entirely support my noble friend Lady Berridge. Following on from the noble Lord, Lord Meston, this is a really important issue in relation to my noble friend’s amendment. It is unfortunate that this issue was not put out to consultation because there is a lack of clarity. It would be ot…
My Lords, I have amendments in this group, and I have added my name to other amendments. I start by adding my support to Amendment 460, tabled by my noble friend Lady Finlay. Safeguarding measures are not optional; they are essential. To ensure that each individual requesting assisted dying is prope…
I thank the noble Baroness. I thought about that, and it could indeed be brought back in a different way later in the debate, but I feel that the prevention of coercion is really important, so thinking about it at this stage is really helpful.
My Lords, at the heart of this debate is the question of safety. It is very impressive to hear all the experience around the House and I know that people shared my experience when we took the Mental Capacity Act through the House in 2005. That Act had been years in the making. It had most profound a…
My Lords, may I clarify that? I have just checked the information. My noble friend is correct in what she says, in that the support was 50:50, but the majority of respondents—64%—opposed expanding eligibility and 65% of them were not confident that consent could act as an adequate safeguard against …
LordsCommittee Stage21 October 20252 contributions
My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, in this debate. First, I declare an interest as a member of your Lordships’ House’s Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee. Only last week, I met the Company Chemists’ Association, which very much endorses this order. This morn…
It is important to keep all matters under review—and I would want more than that—because we need to see how things are going. Certainly, the monitoring will continue. However, I would counsel a bit of caution: increases may not be directly related. As the noble Baroness well knows, it is always a co…
My Lords, it is an honour to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins. I will of course speak for myself, but I also know that I represent views held by many faith leaders—not just Christian leaders—across our nation, with whom I have been in discussion and who have written to me.
Jesus teaches us t…
My Lords, I will speak briefly about definition, and in particular the lack of definition of “personal characteristics”. There is a possibility that the Bill could have unintended consequences for two groups that I have a particular interest in: first, people with learning disabilities and autistic …
I was talking about unintended consequences and the risks of a lack of clarity. I was going to end simply by urging the Minister to reflect deeply on the evidence. We just cannot afford to legislate in ways that risk compounding harm and perpetuating disadvantage.