Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Lord Goodman of Wycombe Excerpts

Friday 13th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackstone (Lab)]

It is with some trepidation that I speak, since I realise how passionately the previous speakers think about what they have said. The first small point I want to make is that the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, referred to Report—we are not going to have a Report stage, because we have taken so long in dealing with all the many, many amendments that have been tabled.

Leaving that on one side, we have to realise that doctors’ main objective is to try to alleviate suffering. This is what those of us backing the Bill believe it does: it will alleviate suffering—sometimes terrible suffering—and torment by allowing people to choose the time of their death when they are already dying. We must not forget this. If we accept that this is the role of doctors, that this is what they try to do in their professional work, we must allow them to discuss at an appropriate point, in their judgment, all the possible options that are available to the dying person. If the Bill were enacted, one of the options would be an assisted death if they had reached that point. So to say that a doctor in a close relationship with his or her patient would be unable to raise this as a possible option would be entirely wrong.

I advise everybody, if they have not done so already, to look at what the BMA says about this. It has specifically briefed against prohibiting doctors from initiating discussion about assisted dying under the Bill, warning that it will be detrimental to patient care. I accept this piece of advice from the BMA. It is a view that many doctors, and some in this Chamber, too, would actually adhere to and agree with.

I very much hope that this group of amendments will not be accepted. It does not mean that at the end the patient is not the one who makes the decision about whether to request an assisted death—of course he or she does. But it just becomes one of the options that is available to them, and that is an option I believe we should allow them to be aware of.

[Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Con)]

My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 151, which is supported by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Fox and Lady Hollins. It was also referred to approvingly by the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, in her earlier remarks. My amendment would prohibit medical professionals from raising assisted dying as an option, unless explicitly requested by the patient.

I will be very brief in introducing this amendment, by pointing out to the Committee that it goes to the heart of a juxtaposition suggested by the Bill. On the one hand, we have an increasingly large, frail, vulnerable, often elderly population, who may not have the full autonomy that the sponsor of the Bill suggests. On the other hand, we have a National Health Service that, by the nature of events, is almost always underfunded and feels that it will be underfunded. If you put those two things together, there will be an inevitable pressure to cut costs and present the cheaper option to the patient who is seeking guidance.

I have carefully read the sponsor’s words in Clause 5 and it is true that, on paper, the patient must be offered the option of palliative care as well as that of an assisted death. However, in these circumstances of financial restriction, I am concerned about the patient being steered in a certain direction. I will not regale the Committee with horror stories from abroad, usually from Canada, about precisely this taking place. Were I to do that, the sponsor of the Bill and others would, quite rightly, point out that there are safeguards in the Bill that are not present in Canada. I would point out in return that safeguards can be whittled away over time. In making that point, I mean nothing to the detriment of the sponsor of the Bill; I am sure that he does not mean it to happen but, over time, people can make amendments and changes to legislation.

I will step back from this amendment and look at it in this way. I believe that assisted dying is intrinsically problematic and, if the Bill ever got further, I would vote against it at Third Reading. However, my concern while we are here is to improve the Bill. If we are to have such a Bill, I want it to be in the best—I should say the least bad—condition possible. Noble Lords know that nothing in the amendment would alter the basic architecture and structure of what the sponsor of the Bill has proposed—in relation to the first doctor, the second doctor, the panel, proxies, the regime for regulating substances or any of that. The amendment would do nothing whatever to prevent anyone seeking an assisted death. All it would do is to prevent a medical professional raising it.

Therefore, I suggest to the noble and learned Lord the sponsor that, if he wants to make some progress with the Bill, he might accept this amendment or one of the many others in this group to a similar end. I look forward to hearing him when he replies but, whether he does accept it or not, this amendment would write a safeguard into the Bill that is not there, and I commend it to the Committee.

[Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)]

I congratulate the noble Lord because, although I disagreed with his conclusions, in just three minutes and 35 seconds he managed to summarise brilliantly the arguments both ways and the evidence.