Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Baroness Spielman Excerpts

Friday 5th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Harper (Con)]

I want to try to make progress, which is why I was trying to keep my remarks very brief; if the noble Lord keeps interrupting me, they will necessarily take longer. All I was going to do was make one further point.

I was very struck by what the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, said about the differences in the medical prognosis for a number of conditions among younger people. I suggest to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, that as well as looking at the assessment process, he should look at the extent to which clinical advice and evidence can be brought in to see whether a terminal diagnosis for a younger person is qualitatively different; from listening to the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, that appears to be the case. That may be the appropriate way to pick up the concerns, which are widely shared. But I also accept—the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, made this point—that the law has to have some clarity to it. Like the noble Baroness, I think that having lots of different ages would be very difficult.

From listening to the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Berridge, I think that may be a way forward; I commend it to the noble and learned Lord when he undertakes his thought process for what he may bring forward on Report.

[Baroness Spielman (Con)]

My Lords, I have not spoken previously on the Bill, nor tabled any amendments. But as the chief inspector responsible for inspecting children’s social care, as well as education in mainstream and special schools, I have visited many institutions with children with life-limiting conditions. I recognise that the Bill has profound implications for many children and young adults.

I support the amendments to raise the minimum age of eligibility—in particular, the amendments from the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, to amend the minimum age limit to 25 throughout the Bill. There are, and always will be, children in their teens with terminal illnesses who are thinking about their own futures, in the context of the choice that they would be empowered to make from their very first day as adults, before they have any experience of adult palliative care.

Even though the provisions now rightly prevent medical practitioners initiating the subject of assisted dying with children, we know that young people seek out and are influenced by all kinds of information freely available online—and we have plenty of precedents. Consider what young people can already see on suicide, eating disorders, puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and, indeed, claiming invalidity benefits. These precedents show that no matter what constraints are placed, there will be freely available video content promoting assisted dying and some of it will coach viewers in how to pass mental capacity tests. That reveals the unpalatable prospect of children reaching their 18th birthday and immediately demanding their right to a state-delivered death, with little or no opportunity for adult services to be deployed to offer supportive alternatives.