Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Lord Sassoon Excerpts

Friday 19th September 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Sassoon (Con)]

My Lords, my reason for speaking in this debate is that I also feel that the many people who have written to us deserve to know where each of us stands. I support the introduction of a carefully circumscribed assisted dying regime along the lines of the Bill.

I have seen two very severely ill immediate family members have the times of their deaths determined by a combination of medical practitioners and other close family members. If such decisions can be made on behalf of individuals who are very ill, who are not capable of making the decisions themselves, why should we deny a similar right to people who can make such decisions? I firmly believe that any moral or religious Rubicon over the determination of the time of a person’s death was crossed long ago in this country.

If I have significant doubts over the Bill, they are very much those of the noble Lord, Lord McDonald of Salford, on whether the safeguards within it risk imposing excessive bureaucracy to the detriment of the effective protection of the individual. Many have criticised the Bill for the extent of its delegated powers and, if this were a government Bill, I would also be appalled. But in this case—it is a Private Member’s Bill and there is clearly not a question of the promoters taking powers for themselves without proper scrutiny—I am not unduly concerned. The committee raises important questions and those delegated power issues will, quite properly and importantly, be carefully considered in Committee.

On the passage of the Bill through the House, I feel strongly with others that we must return it to the other place. It is a Bill that has already been through the other place and that has wide public support. It will be extensively scrutinised and, no doubt, improved by this House; it should then be returned to the other place in the normal course. In that connection, I add my thanks to the noble Baroness, Lady Berger, and to the promoters of the Bill for agreeing to an improved scrutiny process.

So I believe that this is an important Bill. It needs much more scrutiny, but it would further improve the dignity of dying in this country. I hope the House gives it a Second Reading.