"The Mental Capacity Act, as we have heard on numerous occasions in this House, in the other place and in our numerous panel evidence sessions, was never designed to authorise state assistance in ending life. This matters, because cognitive impairments affecting memory and retention are very common. Functional cognitive disorders, …..."
"Under the Mental Capacity Act, such individuals are presumed to have capacity unless proven otherwise and clinicians are required to take all practicable steps to support decision-making. In this context, that duty risks becoming a danger. Where a person cannot retain information, they are likely to rely heavily on others—family …..."
"Amendment 108 addresses an even clearer category of vulnerability. It seeks to provide that a person who is already deprived of liberty under the Mental Capacity Act, subject to guardianship, community treatment, hospital regimes or a welfare order, should be conclusively regarded as lacking capacity for the purposes of assisted …..."
"The evidence from other jurisdictions should give us pause. In Canada, the Ontario coroner’s MAiD Death Review Committee identified cases where people with dementia or delirium received assisted death during acute illness, with limited documentation of capacity and no meaningful opportunity to confirm their wishes. Experts concluded that rigorous capacity …..."
"Amendment 109 follows the same logic. It would reinforce the need for continuous capacity, not momentary, and for a framework that errs firmly on the side of protecting those whose cognitive impairment places them at particular risk...."
"I close with the considerations of one of our country’s leading experts, who we heard at the Lords Select Committee. It was sobering evidence about the limits of clinical certainty in this area. Professor Martin Vernon told us that judging mental capacity can be extraordinarily difficult and at times impossible, …..."