Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Patricia Ferguson Excerpts

Friday 20th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Luke Taylor (Sutton and Cheam) (LD)]

It is an honour to speak in this important debate on an issue that exemplifies why I chose to get into politics and come to this place: to be part of big decisions, taken in tune with public opinion, listening to evidence, and with the goal of making our residents better off. I have no doubt that all right hon. and hon. Members here today intend to make their residents better off, but in this case, tragically, better off means suffering less and giving them agency in the most painful moment of their lives.

This Bill addresses a situation where the status quo is utterly unacceptable. I hope that we can all agree in this place that we have heard heartbreaking stories from the families of those who have watched a loved one die in pain or of the fear of someone with a terminal diagnosis facing the prospect of an agonising death. The choice we have with this legislation is whether we choose to do something about that status quo or not. Rejecting this Bill, imperfect as it may be, will continue the pain of those who are let down by the current laws. They are guaranteed victims of a system that is letting them down.

[Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow West) (Lab)]

Will the hon. Member give way?

[Luke Taylor]

I will make some progress, thank you. I start by making the somewhat unusual case that this issue, for which we are gathered here on a Friday, giving up bake sales and constituency surgeries, is not quite the big deal it has been whipped up to be by both proponents and opponents. I do not believe that we are considering a fundamental change in the relationship between doctor and patient, or seeking to change the relationship between the state and the individual. I do not believe that we are stepping on to a slippery slope or unpicking the very purpose of the NHS, as some have suggested. We are here simply to give those who already face terrible decisions—doctors, patients and their families—a real choice of how to face those decisions, and protection in law for choices that are already being made today.