Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Baroness Morris of Bolton Excerpts

Friday 12th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Morris of Bolton (Con)]

My Lords, it is 19 years since I first spoke in your Lordships’ House on the hugely emotive topic of assisted dying. My view then, that however well-intentioned legislation may be, the safeguards just are not good enough, has not changed in the intervening years and debates. If anything, my concern for the vulnerable and the frightened has increased, but I also recognise that, over these years, opinions have changed, often due to distressing family experiences. I understand the strength and feeling of those here today and throughout the country who support the Bill but, as the noble Lord, Lord Carlile of Berriew, so rightly said: this Bill is not adequate.

However well intentioned, a promise made in a general election campaign, delivered through a Private Member’s Bill, with all its constraints and time limits, is not the way to fundamentally change the compact between government and the people. The report of the Constitution Committee completely captures where I stand on the Bill. A Private Member’s Bill simply cannot undergo the same scrutiny as a government Bill. As that committee says:

“This is especially concerning given the subject matter of the Bill”.


I also agree with the committee’s advocacy for parliamentary pre-legislative scrutiny. If ever there were such a need, it is for this Bill. Any legislation that so profoundly changes the norms of society should be undertaken only after seeking the widest views. That is why I do not think my noble friend Lord Forsyth’s amendment will make this a Bill fit for the statute book, however many hours we debate it. We do not need more time to listen to ourselves; we need more time to listen to the voices of others. We have a chance to do that with the amendment in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, which I will support.

To all those who have written to me, either for or against the Bill, I say a huge thank you for sharing your stories. We heard from the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, the harrowing story of Tom’s death from bile duct cancer. Yet choosing when to die does not guarantee a gentle end. In 2015, I raised the issue of a handful of people who had woken up from the drugs administered—it is now nine in Oregon—none of whom asked to repeat the experience. With the drugs taken now as tablets, it is not just one tablet; you have to swallow something like 100. I thank those who have written to express their concerns around the issues of complicated grief, which haunts many relatives of those who have chosen assisted suicide and about which we hear too little.

In almost all the letters I received, there was a desire to address the fear and reality of dying in pain, which exists. As we have heard so eloquently expressed around the House, any discussion of assisted dying must go hand in hand with the provision of, and access to, the very best palliative care. If we could achieve that, we really would be fulfilling this Bill’s stated purpose of giving those who are already dying a choice over the manner of their death. But, as things stand, I wholeheartedly agree with the noble Baroness, Lady Smith, that this Bill is not fit for purpose.