Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Mawson and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

Committee stage
Friday 23rd January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I listened very carefully to that. I indicated previously, in relation to powers of attorney, for example, that it would be worth putting it in. First, I am not sure what “it” is. Secondly, “it” is there: the key is the words “informed consent”, which nobody has any difficulty in understanding. It may have a particular implication in a particular case, and you have to give people flexibility in relation to what they say, because it will depend on the circumstances. If I knew what “it” was, I would put it in, but it is just not that simple.

[Lord Mawson (CB)]

My Lords, I said to the noble and learned Lord earlier that in some ways, this feels—from where I have spent a lot of my life, in the East End of London—like quite a white, middle-class conversation. Where I spend my life, one is dealing with every nationality on earth, often with lots of people whose grasp of English, in communication and really understanding what they are saying to each other, is quite complicated. I am just trying—because I am a practical person—to understand how this will work in practice. How will one ensure that, with the panel and the doctors, you will have in that process the people with the language and other capabilities and skills to really know what informed consent is? How much will it cost to ensure that all those elements are in this process?

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

The noble Lord makes a good point: how do you, in dealing with a wide range of cultures, establish that it is the informed wish of the individual that they want an assisted death? You cannot prescribe in a Bill how you would do it in every case, but there is absolutely no doubt, as far as the Bill is concerned, that the establishment of that informed wish is the basic foundation before you get there. Therefore, in each case, if it involves a different culture or a different language, that must be gone through before you can be satisfied.

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Debate between Lord Mawson and Lord Falconer of Thoroton

Committee stage
Friday 21st November 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I do not feel insulted by being called “you”, but I do not think that the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, properly understands how the Bill operates. The two doctors and the panel have to be satisfied that the person is reaching a voluntary decision of their own, uncoerced and unpressured. Codes of practice will determine how that is done and, what is more, the panel with the three experts on it also has to be satisfied. The noble Baroness, Lady Fox, is saying that that is a tick-box exercise. With respect, no: this is obviously a very serious matter. I expect the doctors and the panel doing it to take it seriously.

[Lord Mawson (CB)]

My Lords, as the noble and learned Lord knows, I have spent a lot of my life working with people in housing estates in the East End of London. Research we did some years ago discovered that virtually every nation on earth is represented in the housing estates where I worked. I have spent a lot of my time, nearly 40 years, working with Bengali families. We know each other quite well, but do I really know what is going on in the minds of that community or with that single mother, trapped in a house, who does not speak English after all these years? The truth is that I do not. It is really difficult to know. In the same way, I find it difficult, as a Yorkshireman, to help southerners understand what is really going on in Yorkshire. Even though I have tried it many times, the quality of their fish and chips really does not cut it.

One of my problems with this overcertainty is that it feels like a very white, English conversation, when actually this country is a global community, with people from many different cultures, all over the world. What concerns me is the practicality of much of the discussion that I have listened to today, and I have no idea how you actually understand coercion or encouragement—I think that is a really important word—in practice. Having spent many years of my life with these people, I would not pretend to know what I was really hearing, at such a point, and what it meant for their life in practice.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I completely agree that the noble Lord and I might well not understand what people from different cultures would say, but the two doctors and a panel would have to understand that sufficiently to reach a conclusion. If they do not, they cannot provide the satisfaction that is required by the Bill. The idea that the people who will make the Bill work are all from a particular class, demography and education is, with respect, wrong.

[Lord Mawson (CB)]

Will we have enough people from these different cultures with the skills and knowledge to enter into that kind of understanding, whether they are doctors or on the panels? It is really difficult to understand how that practical proposition will work in the real world—in the East End of London.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

That will very much depend upon the number of people who apply from particular groups, and I think one can be pretty sure, on the basis of the impact assessment, that there will be sufficient numbers.