Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Friday 12th September 2025 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean]

As an amendment to the motion that the bill be now read a second time, at end to insert “but that this House calls upon His Majesty’s Government, in the light of the 32nd Report from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee, to ensure sufficient time is available for consideration of amending stages of this bill, and to provide full support at ministerial and official level to the peer in charge of the bill for its remaining stages in the House of Lords.”

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)]

My Lords, this amendment would simply implement the advice given by the Cabinet Secretary to the Prime Minister as to how to handle this Bill, which was to treat it in the same way as other Private Members’ Bills bringing in changes to legislation on matters of conscience, such as the abortion Bill, the end of capital punishment or the decriminalisation of homosexuality. The advantage of that, of course, is that it means that government time is made available and all the resources of the Government and the Civil Service are made available for the purpose. I am most grateful to the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, for his assurances that he has been given some help.

I am not so sure, however, about the noble and learned Lord’s assurances on the time needed for this. As I understand it, four days have been allocated between now and Christmas to consider the Bill—the Employment Rights Bill has a total of 15 days. These are Fridays, and there are other Private Members’ Bills. It is really important that this matter be discussed properly, and that is why I have tabled this amendment. Anyone who has read the report from the committees of this House will realise that there is much to do on amending the Bill.

My father died in agony. When I went to see him, I said, “I’m so sorry that your cancer is causing you this distress”. He said to me, “Michael, you are to blame”. I was completely poleaxed by that. I asked, “How can you say that I am to blame?” He said, “Because you have consistently voted to prevent me getting what I want, which is the opportunity to decide how and when I come to die”. As a Christian, I have thought about that long and hard, and I have come to the conclusion that my father was right and I was wrong. Therefore, I support absolutely the principle of this Bill.

However, I have some problems with it. On page 7 of the excellent Explanatory Notes to the Bill, a table on what is required is set out. I suspect that people will get to the stage where they just cannot go on any longer. They will do their best to hang on, but they will get to the stage where it is just too much, as my father did. However, under the provisions of this Bill, you have to see a GP, then you have to see another GP and then a panel. There then must be a holding period of no less than three weeks before you can get to the position where you are given what you want. That is completely impractical and impossible. I know that some people will say, “We’re doing that in order to provide protection”, but whom are we protecting? Surely the patient should come before anything else.

I am conscious of time, but one thing more that worries me is the provision in the Bill leaving the Secretary of State for Health, who is against the Bill, up to four years to delay its implementation. The noble and learned Lord, the sponsor of the Bill, said that it is giving hope to people. Well, there is not much hope with the possibility of the Bill not coming into effect until well into the next Parliament. We need time. We need every resource available in government and we need government time, so that we can get this absolutely right. There will not be a second opportunity for a very long time. Anyone who has read the letters that have come into us will know that many people are holding great hopes for this Bill. It is up to this House to amend it so that the other place can make it worthy of their hope.