Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Lord Moore of Etchingham Excerpts

Friday 20th March 2026 Lords Chamber

I think it would help if we were to insert in the Bill an amanuensis for the deaf and perhaps Moon Braille, which is the best thing for really elderly, very disadvantaged people at the moment in hospital. Without that, there will be no help at all. As deaf people, our immediate reaction when we do not understand something is to agree; we just say yes. It is the quickest way of getting away because you know very well the person will merely repeat it in the same tone of voice with the same words. You will not be able to lip-read it any better, which is the way in which 99% of deaf people understand others. I think that we will get a lot of deaths when people really do not have the agency to agree.

[Lord Moore of Etchingham (Non-Afl)]

My Lords, I was deeply interested by the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Fraser, and her amendment. I would like to confirm from personal experience that a young man very well known to me can barely speak at all. He has therefore been effectively silent all of his life. Through a system called Spelling to Communicate, it turns out that he has a vast range of knowledge and high conceptual skills, which have only been discovered very late. He is now communicating by these means, but he can only communicate, at this stage at least, through his mother. I very much support what the noble Baroness has said, but—forgive me if I have missed something—I do not quite understand how the wording of her amendment will achieve the effect she intends.

[Baroness Fraser of Craigmaddie (Con)]

I thank the noble Lord. By probing the words “seek assistance”, I am trying to explore what assistance is provided. The noble Lord is quite right in the example of his friend. There are people who cognitively can absolutely understand what is going on. Therefore, in the context of this Bill, they would understand the assisted dying process. But they would need help with the tools by which to communicate their will, and the time and space and sometimes the vocabulary to do that. I note that, in the noble Lord’s example, his friend has only recently come to it. An issue is understanding what the right thing is for some of these people. He also said he can, at the moment, communicate only through his mother. That is my other fear. Far too often with this population, people speak for them because they know them best. I hope that clarifies my intentions.