Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Baroness Wheatcroft Excerpts

Friday 23rd January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Carlile of Berriew (CB)]

My Lords, I put my name to the amendments of the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, and I will not repeat what she said. She opened the debate on these amendments with superb clarity, characteristic of her contributions to your Lordships’ House.

I have been shocked by what I have just heard from the noble Lord, Lord Markham. I ask him just to reflect on two contributions made earlier in this afternoon’s session by my noble friend Lord Mawson, who, from his own experience, described what happens in poorer neighbourhoods, which he has experienced very directly, in which people face different problems and are more likely to want to die for reasons to which their terminal illness is just an ancillary point.

I have been involved in these debates since I came into your Lordships’ House at least. I was on the Joffe Bill Committee with my noble friend Lady Finlay. In the Committee on that Bill, in all the other Bills I can remember since, and particularly in all the case law that I have followed over the years—mostly very celebrated cases—the purpose of asking for assisted suicide has been to alleviate terrible suffering. That has been the sole purpose for demanding a change in the law: to alleviate terrible suffering. I do not believe that the noble and learned Lord wishes to achieve anything different from that. It is just that it does not say in the Bill that the purpose of having assisted suicide should be to alleviate terrible suffering.

Of course, there may be other issues at work in that person’s mind when they ask for assisted suicide—we cannot read every synapse in their brain—but we are here to legislate to save people from terrible suffering, if the Bill is to pass. I am very concerned that the Bill should be amended so that the capability to have assisted suicide does not arise as an opportunity to commit suicide. The reason to commit suicide, the absolute cause, should be the intolerable suffering.

[Baroness Wheatcroft (CB)]

Would the noble Lord accept, however, that it would be deeply unfair if somebody whose major wish was to end their terminal illness, and the pain and intolerable suffering that was coming with it, was to be denied that right because they were also concerned about numerous other things? Very few people have a perfect life, even when they are close to death. To deny that person the right to an assisted death because they might have concerns beyond their suffering would seem to be cruel in the extreme.

[Lord Carlile of Berriew (CB)]

I do not think there is much difference between what I am saying and what my noble friend is saying. I am saying that, if this law is passed, people should be able to obtain assisted suicide because of intolerable suffering. I am not seeking to exclude other matters that might be in their mind, but the cause of asking for assisted suicide should be that suffering. The medical profession, lawyers and judges in particular—if we have the judicial option rather than the panel option—are perfectly capable of reaching a decision on the facts that would lead to the appropriate conclusion.