Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Pippa Heylings Excerpts

Friday 20th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Kevin McKenna]

No, I will not.

Many colleagues have talked about whether this debate has been too short, too long, too complicated or not complicated enough. I have heard questions about whether the Bill is ready to for us to hand on to the House of Lords. To be clear, I believe that it is. It is really important to remember that we have been debating this issue not just during this Parliament; the debate has gone on for decades. I remember being taught by a really strong advocate for palliative care when I was a student nurse; he was dead set against assisted dying. His argument was that if we bring in assisted dying, it will mean that palliative care will never get the funding and resources that it needs—something that so many people have said. That was nearly 30 years ago, and we have not grasped that nettle as a country.

At the end of this debate, I really hope that we can finally bring to fruition the ambition of almost every Member of this House: the ambition to ensure that palliative care works and is accessible to everyone in this country. However, if we do, that is not a reason not to have assisted dying. Assisted dying is the choice of many people in this country, and I want it to be a choice for me. If I get to that point in my life, I want that choice available to me, and that will be true for some other Members. Still others do not want to ever have that choice, but it needs to be there. I want people to think about themselves as well.

[Pippa Heylings (South Cambridgeshire) (LD)]

Will the hon. Member give way?

[Kevin McKenna]

I will not.

It is important to think about ourselves as well. Sometimes we Members of Parliament think it selfish to think about what we may need, but it is fundamental, because this is about individuals. This is about each of us at the end of life.

The Bill is much stronger than it was at the start, and I was already convinced that it was the right thing to vote for. I really think it is ready for us to hand on to our colleagues in the other place. Many members of the public are behind us, and I commend the Bill in its current from. I will vote for it on Third Reading, and I hope many other people will too.

--- Later in debate ---

[Luke Taylor]

In conclusion, in the heart-wrenching words of Decca Aitkenhead, who wrote in The Times last week, and which I found particularly moving:

“critics of the bill have begun to frame the debate as if leaving the law as it stands does not hurt anyone. It does.”

She said that opponents

“worry about speculative, hypothetical victims—but the status quo creates indisputable, real life victims”.

[Pippa Heylings]

Will my hon. Friend give way?

[Luke Taylor]

I will not, sorry—I am close to closing.

She went on to say:

“The bill’s opponents portray it as cruel, heartless and macabre. I wish they could have sat at”

—her friend—

“Charlotte’s bedside, heard her groan, “Let … me … die”, and seen what cruel, heartless and macabre actually looks like.”

This Bill is the right thing to do. It has been scrutinised, amended and debated. This Bill is ready. Please vote in favour today to give our residents a choice.