Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
Lord Jamieson Excerpts(1 day, 20 hours ago)
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Lord Jamieson (Con)
My Lords, I wish to raise two concerns with the Bill. The Bill seeks to prevent coercion, but that is a high bar. My concern is with undue influence. As with many others who have been elected, I came across many elderly, vulnerable and lonely residents. Often, they lacked the support that they should have had and needed. Yet, they voiced concern that they were a burden to their family, to their friends and to society.
I combine this with the risk of undue influence being brought to bear. One of my earliest experiences as a councillor was with an elderly lady who went into hospital for a major operation. She had few relatives and gave one of the few relatives she had left power of attorney. The operation was successful, yet the relative put her into a care home and sought to sell her home. Fortunately, she had good friends who managed to nullify the power of attorney, and she returned home. This may be an extreme case, but it demonstrates the risks, and I have other less extreme examples of relatives seeking to gain their inheritance sooner.
My second concern is the role of the NHS. The NHS is a large and complex organisation. It already has a great deal of difficulties in delivering its current roles. From a personal perspective, I have had several family members being treated for cancer and, despite many good staff, all too often it felt like they were being treated as a unit and not an individual. In the case of my mother, palliative care was only available eventually. I know that both my noble friend Lord Bethell and the noble Lord, Lord, Stevens, have raised the issue of the capacity of the NHS to implement this Bill. In my opinion, the NHS’s whole focus should be on the health and well-being of the individual; it should not have an additional role, to kill people. If this Bill were to progress, its delivery should be entirely separate to the NHS, and I intend to table such an amendment.