Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill
10 Sep 2026 · Commons Chamber · 210 speeches · Official record
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Does my hon. Friend agree that unless this House makes it absolutely clear that it is outrageous and unacceptable for a very small number of unelected peers to block legislation, supported by the elected Chamber, then the same tactic could be used again with any private Member’s Bill that comes forward in this House? Full speech
I have said that I am not going to take any interventions. I am sorry to be discourteous to the hon. Member, but I am going to stick to that. I want to make a few comments on the matter of social care and palliative care, having recently taken over responsibility for these most important issues. In my opinion, social care has been ignored for far too long-both the 1.5 million people, mainly women, who work in it and the families who need it. We have heard that across the House today. The Prime M... Full speech
Surprisingly, I will not try to persuade hon. Members how to vote today, because I think they know by now how they will vote and why. However, I feel I need to share my thoughts and views with my constituents, and to set out why I am voting the way I am. I say this because there is a significant change from how I voted previously. If hon. Members are influenced by my contribution, so be it. I will get right to the point. I previously voted for assisted dying. I recognised then, as I do now, the ... Full speech
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for mentioning the Scottish context. We voted down such legislation on Third Reading, when we understood the impacts and the wider societal ramifications. I have to be honest. When I am asked to prognosticate on whether someone has six months to live, I am as often wrong as I am right. It is no longer a good enough marker for the DWP to use in discharging benefits for life-limiting conditions, and I do not see why it should be a good enough marker for prescribing ... Full speech
This Bill is not safe, and today the responsibility for this Bill falls on us and only us. If we vote yes today, unless the movers, who accepted no critical amendments in Committee last time, have a 180-degree change of heart, we can expect this Bill to become law as it stands. Despite hon. Members saying that they will press their own amendments, we have no assurance from the Government that Government time will be allocated for that. The only question we are left with is not whether we are in ... Full speech
I am sorry; I really must make progress. We could have thousands of people entering the system immediately. If the safeguards are not right on day one, vulnerable people will be exposed on day one. We also have the updated equality impact assessment, to which the hon. Member for Bradford West referred, and its conclusions should give every Member pause. It recognises that “disabled people may feel subtle pressure due to attitudinal barriers or a lack of alternative appropriate services and suppo... Full speech
Not for the first time this week, I find myself wholeheartedly agreeing with the right hon. Member for East Hampshire (Damian Hinds). He and I agree that we will all act according to our conscience and respect others if they come to a different conclusion. I thank Members on both sides of the debate across the House for their consideration of this legislation and their thoughtful contributions to the debate. By my count, 40 Members have spoken in the debate; I have listened to all that they have... Full speech
I do, but they are each one individual, and each of the professional organisations is neutral, and believe me, I envy them on that. We have the responsibility to make the decision. The majority of us have already said that this is the best Bill we can produce. We-the majority of us-have made that decision once already, and we sent it to the other place. If we do that again today, I hope that those in the other place listen and take that on board and that the handful of peers who blocked it- Full speech
Palliative and social care need fixing, and that is a concern that unites the House. It is a scandal that how well people die depends on where they live, but to suggest that this Bill should wait until palliative care has been improved is a fallacy for two reasons. First, the Bill gives us an opportunity to improve palliative care. It places a statutory duty on the Secretary of State to tell this House what the state of palliative care in this country is, and whether people can even access it. N... Full speech
We talk a lot about Canada, but the Netherlands is practically next door to my constituency and has a democracy very similar to ours. People in their 20s have been allowed to take this path there, which is absolutely shocking. Mental ill health, and even solvable temporary social problems, have entered the fray in those other nations; I am talking about depression and homelessness. There are young people opting to end their life. Those in favour of this Bill may dismiss that as scaremongering, b... Full speech
I will make some progress. As important as a democratic point of principle is to the argument I am making, we must not lose sight of the people who are relying on us most: the terminally ill and their families. The Gallery today is filled with inspirational people campaigning for this much-needed change in the law-people who are themselves terminally ill and who, due to the passage of time, may never get the opportunity to choose a dignified death surrounded by their loved ones, but who neverthe... Full speech
There is no issue of conscience more capable of dividing constituents, families or, indeed, this House, than that of assisted dying. We can all agree that no one wants to suffer unnecessarily at the end of their life, and that no one wants to witness their loved ones suffering. We are all here in this place doing what we believe is best to achieve that end. This debate means that the subject of death as a process is again out of the shadows, where we as a society have thrust it over many years. ... Full speech
I point out that if this Bill received Royal Assent, the four-year implementation period provided for at the end of the Bill would give us the opportunity to work together to improve palliative care and assisted dying, creating the holistic end-of-life care system to which I have referred. Full speech
I have cared for patients with advanced cancers of the head and neck, and I have seen patients at the end of their life. It is that experience above all that convinces me that we must introduce this humane and dignified option to assist those who are dying, so that they can die in peace at a time of their choosing and avoid the loss of autonomy and dignity that so many people fear. I fear it; perhaps other hon. Members also fear it, for none of us can know when we will die until we are dying our... Full speech
No, I will not give way. I will make some progress- [ Interruption. ] Full speech
No, I will make some progress. We heard difficult stories about patients with bile duct cancer facing the prospect of faecal vomiting as their illness progressed. We listened as Members recounted memories of watching patients bleed to death while conscious, cancer having eaten away at their carotid artery. We felt their frustration when the maximum dose of sedatives could not alleviate the choking and suffocation of someone with peritoneal cancer. Those people deserved choice and a dignified end... Full speech
The hon. Lady is making a principled argument that the House must listen to and respect, but she has spoken about choice and dignity, and the one thing I have never understood about this Bill is the importance of the specific time period-that it would apply to adults who have six months or fewer to live. If there is to be choice and dignity, and if people are in pain and the condition is terminal, what is the sanctity of six months? If the principles of choice and dignity underpin the Bill, sure... Full speech
Under the Bill, what we would be saying to those clinicians is, “We want you to do much, much more. We want you to gauge whether people are being coerced. We want you to make a definitive judgment about how long someone has to live.” That is an unbearable pressure on those who have a mission to save lives, not to take them. Full speech
I will not. Like so many North Somerset residents who have written to me on this issue, I believe that those who are suffering, often for long, unimaginable stretches of time, deserve to be offered a choice. Full speech
I will make a little more progress. This is the cost of accepting the status quo: the fear and worry for those who know that palliative care may not be enough to avoid a difficult and painful death. It snatches away their final moments, which, as I know from speaking to friends and family in Australia, can be much better spent when there is a safe voluntary assisted dying system in place. Full speech
I would be happy to address that point. There is not a uniform view among disabled people on assisted dying. Like with anything, within organisations there are people who arrive at different views. It is important that we are giving disabled people the same rights as other people. It is very clear in the Bill that it is for adults aged over 18 who have a terminal illness and who only have six months to live. It specifically makes clear that it does not apply to people who have a disability. Full speech
Speaker
Question put accordingly, That the Bill now be read a Second time. Full speech
I will not at this moment. My second reason is the medical reality that some conditions are beyond good palliative care. Driving improvements in palliative care should be a moral imperative for all of us in this place, but doing that does not resolve the question before us today. Another doctor, the hon. Member for Hinckley and Bosworth (Dr Evans), again speaking in November 2024, said that there are some conditions for which we “cannot provide” good palliative care. He said that for “the likes ... Full speech
I also respect my hon. Friend and, though it was not a point of order, the House will have heard what she said. I am attempting to address the points that have been raised in the debate, particularly on procedural matters, on social care and palliative care, which I turn to now. Palliative care is extremely important and has been raised many times within the debate. As the Chair of the Select Committee set out, we are developing a modern service framework for palliative and end-of-life care. The... Full speech
I led the independent commission on palliative care, and the data shows a worsening of palliative care; 170,000 people do not have access to the care that they need, and even those who are able to access palliative care may not have access to specialist techniques such as neuromodulation and palliative radiotherapy, and to nerve blocks. Does the right hon. Member not recognise that we need to look at the skills available, as well as the access points? Full speech
I will not. The Lords tabled 1,000 amendments, many of which were cruel or absurd; they were effectively designed to be sand in the engine, and to slow up what should have been proper parliamentary process-a process that the dying deserve to see operate correctly. We have to be aware in this House that expectations are high, and the people who send us here should be able to rely on decisions made in this House proceeding into law. I am afraid that what is at stake today is our democracy. If this... Full speech
I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention, but he will find that there are statistics on that. In America, 8% of those who have been deemed to have chosen to end their life have faced huge financial difficulties. Full speech
Will my hon. Friend confirm how many amendments were accepted in the House of Lords, and that it was about 90 peers who were involved in supporting all the amendments tabled? Full speech
I would start by saying that the Bill is explicit that it does not apply to people with a disability. Full speech
It is not quite the exact same Bill; it incorporates two amendments that were agreed without a vote in the House of Lords last time. We have had our conversation in this Chamber about this Bill in 2025, and we have had an interrupted conversation as a nation. I am asking Members of this House to send the Bill back to the House of Lords so that they can continue their important work of amending and scrutinising legislation. Full speech
No, I shall not. It is worth noting that the NHS has not been meeting its own standards on palliative care for decades. The then Minister for Care, the right hon. Member for Aberafan Maesteg (Stephen Kinnock), appeared before our Committee in the spring, and he mentioned the importance of workforce. I ask again, where is that workforce plan? We need it, but that will not be the whole answer; we also need better data and early identification, clearer guidance and joined-up working with adult soci... Full speech
As the hon. and very experienced Member will know, that was not a point of order and not a matter for the Chair, but I am sure the Minister has heard her. Full speech
I will not, because of time. I would get the evils from Madam Deputy Speaker. One in 20 deaths in Canada is assisted. If that were translated to this country, it would mean a huge extra cost, and the money would have to be found from other frontline services. Which ones? Likely it would be taken from Government support for hospices, which are already reeling from national insurance increases that have yet to be fully offset. In my view, the moral, ethical, legal and practical issues that we are ... Full speech
I remind Members that it is not customary to impose a speech limit on private Members’ Bills, but I hope that after the Member in charge of the Bill and the speaker after that, Members will restrict themselves to about seven to eight minutes in the first instance; that includes taking interventions. I may need to ask for further shorter speeches to enable more Members to contribute. I should make it clear that the Chair retains the right to impose a formal speech limit, but I would rather collea... Full speech
I will make some progress. Members took the best part of a year to grapple with this issue: spoke to constituents; engaged with the organisations that would be affected; read the materials; thought deeply; consulted their conscience. They arrived at a decision-whatever that decision was and however they voted or, indeed, did not vote at all-but it was a difficult process. It is not acceptable that the outcome of those deliberations has not been respected. We owe it to the people we represent to ... Full speech
I am sorry; I will not just now. This Bill has an auto-commencement clause, which means that within four years of the passage of this Bill-whatever the state of our health service, of our social care, or of our palliative care; even if there has been another pandemic-it will come into force. That brings me to our safeguards. I cannot vote for a Bill that does not sufficiently guard against coercion. That is what my constituents with disabilities say they fear the most and, having been in charge ... Full speech
No, I will carry on if that is okay. It is a great thing to offer end-of-life care and palliative care. In 2010, the UK system for palliative care was at the level of the best in the world, yet still people went to Dignitas. Still, 600 people who were suffering from terminal diagnosis killed themselves. Indeed, in Oregon, 92% of patients who opted for assisted dying were receiving good palliative care. They are different things. Full speech
Rarely do we debate legislation that represents such a seismic shift in the relationships between individuals, the state, health providers and civic society. There is so much at stake. When Members believe strongly that a Bill is flawed and could be abused, resulting in serious harm, we have an absolute duty to implore others not to simply let it pass and hope for the best, but to consider it fully and deeply and to accept that our duty is first and foremost to protect lives. The potential conse... Full speech
The Kingston University research that I referred to earlier shows that in the Netherlands, people with learning disabilities cited being coerced into an assisted death. Does my hon. Friend share my concerns about that? Full speech
Absolutely-it would set a dangerous precedent. Those Members who want to come in on the specifics of the Parliament Acts will have ample opportunity to do so later in my speech, and I will be willing to take interventions on that matter. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley for the courage, courtesy and openness she showed during the passage of her Bill. Her engagement with those from all sides of the debate, particularly in Committee, delivered a stronger Bill that this Ho... Full speech
I will not give way just now. If you have moral certainty on this question, I honestly envy you. On the state of palliative care, we are told that this Bill is about giving our constituents more options-a choice between good palliative care or an assisted death. But in a world where there are such gaping holes in our health, social care and palliative care system, that is simply not the case. Full speech
Absolutely; we are here to make good laws. Today’s vote, as we have heard, is not simply on the principle of the Bill, but on the detail-or, frankly, the lack of detail. Good intentions are not enough. We are voting not on what we want to happen because of the Bill, but on what will happen. We cannot continue to divorce it from reality. It will have an impact right across Government and our communities, and intertwine us swiftly in new challenges. Too often in this place, we have good intentions... Full speech
I welcome the speech from the hon. Member for Calder Valley (Josh Fenton-Glynn), who is an example of what we have seen throughout this debate, going back to the early 2000s: people peeling off from supporting assisted dying in principle and, certainly, peeling off from supporting this Bill. I am a case in point. I came into the Chamber to listen to Lord Falconer’s Bill in 2014 absolutely determined that I was going to vote for assisted dying. I sat through the debate and ended up voting against... Full speech
claimed to move the closure (Standing Order No. 36). Question put forthwith, That the Question be now put. Full speech
I encourage Members to think of colleagues when making their contributions, and not to speak for too long. Obviously, I cannot introduce a time limit. Full speech
I could not agree more-these issues have come to light in similar jurisdictions around the world. We know that there is a greater risk of social coercion driven by the inequalities that people face. Under the current proposals, will the panel of experts be able to adequately assess the impact of the wider pressures of life? The truth is that when we talk about choice, the reality of making such a choice is very different for the wealthy than it is for others. Inequality shapes health outcomes th... Full speech
Will my hon. Friend be generous enough to give way on that point? Full speech
I disagree with the position that any time we amend a Bill in this place, it is ultimately deficient and unworkable. That is not how it works. All I am asking the Chamber to do today is to send the Bill back to the House of Lords so it can continue its work, which was interrupted, of scrutinising the Bill. Full speech
It pierces my heart whenever cancer is mentioned in this conversation, and I am grateful to the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton) for her advocacy. A person may have cancer, and a terminal diagnosis, and still want to live. We should support those people to live first, before we contemplate their death. Full speech
The hon. Member for Filton and Bradley Stoke (Claire Hazelgrove) has spoken most movingly, and we know that many of us are very conflicted on this issue. We have to respect each other and show compassion-we know what this debate is all about. No one side has a monopoly on compassion. I will say in a moment why I believe in being assisted to die in a dignified way, but will the House forgive me if I start with an essential legal point? We know that what this is all about is ensuring that the Bill... Full speech
I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s intervention. I do not have that number; what I do have is the number of amendments that were proposed. There were 1,286 wrecking amendments. There are many thoughtful and compassionate critics of the Bill who I respect deeply. I want to put on record my admiration for my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton) and for her astonishingly brave speech. However, what I cannot condone is the actions of Members of the other place whose motivation ... Full speech
Thank you for calling me, Madam Deputy Speaker. I mean that sincerely on a day when so many colleagues want to speak. I promise you that my remarks will be brief. Our debate today is about who has choice and agency in our society both in respect of the authority of this elected House of Commons and what limits should exist on the role of the other place, and, more fundamentally, in respect of the right of a terminally ill person to exercise choice at the end of their life and whether the state s... Full speech
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention. I also want to talk about data from the King’s Fund, which shows that in 2023-24 local authorities received more than 2 million requests for social care support for new clients, but only 859,000 received publicly funded, long-term social care, nearly two thirds of them older people. That means that 58% received no support. Furthermore, the Government’s equality impact assessment gives me pause. It acknowledges concerns that people from ethni... Full speech
I am sorry; I will not. Those people include Christie Arntsen, who has lived for more than a decade with incurable metastatic breast cancer, which has sadly returned for the fifth time. She is undergoing what may be her final treatment of chemotherapy. Christie speaks eloquently about how her fear of a difficult death has weighed on her mind since her diagnosis and affected her life: “For me the scariest part of having the diagnosis was that I had no control over the last few weeks of my life…If... Full speech
I am sorry to be stirring up Members at this stage of the debate, particularly as time is very short. Another theme is that people somehow believe that there is a binary choice available to us on palliative care: that we should either have 100% palliative care, or can go down the route of backing the Bill-or rather, that we should not support such a Bill until we have 100% perfect wraparound universal palliative care around the country. The Health Committee, of which I am a member, has produced ... Full speech
The last time this matter was debated in this House, I was sitting at the hospital bedside of my dying mother. Consequently, I was unable to speak in that debate and unable to cast a vote. I am therefore grateful for the opportunity to speak and vote today, and I urge colleagues and the promoter of this Bill, my hon. Friend the Member for Rochester and Strood (Lauren Edwards), to ensure that this House has the opportunity to scrutinise the Bill, to amend it and to make it safe. Accompanying some... Full speech
I will not. Despite knowing this, we stand once more on the edge. We stand on the edge, knowing all the Bill’s flaws. I ask colleagues to pause, to not step over the edge. Instead, we must ask ourselves the following questions. Are we certain that this Bill definitively safeguards against coercion, including self-coercion? Are we certain about mental capacity assessments? Are we certain about terminal prognosis? Are we certain that the safeguards and review mechanisms will be in place? Are we ce... Full speech
The hon. Gentleman makes a very important point. Full speech
No, I will make some progress. Taking the approach I have outlined respects both the will of this House, as expressed in June 2025, and allows the usual parliamentary processes to continue. Full speech
I will keep going, so that everyone has a chance to speak. We must give people dignity, security and support when they need it the most. At present, palliative care remains lovingly-but to an embarrassing degree-funded through donations and by supporters who run marathons, charity shops and fundraising events for hospice charities across the UK. The National Audit Office concluded that, in 2023-24, around two thirds of the independent adult hospice sector’s total income was generated from those ... Full speech
My hon. Friend makes an important point. Let me go back to St Andrew’s hospice in Grimsby. My mother died in hospital on the day that she was due to be moved into that hospice-how I wish that only a day or two earlier she had been able to do that, and to receive the care that I know from subsequent visits the hospice has provided. We all have to cope with the loss of loved ones, and such experience raises in the mind of any right-thinking person the question of how we minimise suffering. If some... Full speech
On that point, will the hon. Lady please give way? Full speech
I cannot give way, because of the time constraints. All Bills are necessarily a compromise. That does not mean that we simply have to make do with bad legislation, but the Bill that was sent down to the other place was in fact an excellent compromise that actually achieved all of the matters- Full speech
Is a requirement to ask someone why they want to have a physician-assisted suicide a wrecking amendment? Full speech
I am sorry, but because of time, I will not. If the hon. Member wants, he can send me a postcard with the answer to my question: when have we ever had a perfect piece of legislation? We would be perpetually restrained from making progress if perfect legislation was the aim, because we only produce compromises, not the utopian perfection that we all want. If we were all sent off at the beginning of this process two years ago to look at how best to handle end-of-life considerations, and given a pe... Full speech
Absolutely, and I thank my hon. Friend for her contribution and her considerable experience in this area. We hear a lot about coercion. Those with learning disabilities are surely extremely vulnerable to that, as well as the elderly and people with dementia. Before my dad lost the ability to speak, he could absolutely have presented as being capable of signing on the dotted line to medical professionals who did not know him like the family did. In reality, he would have forgotten almost immediat... Full speech
Order. The Member has made clear that she is not taking interventions at this point. Full speech
The position that I take is that we can, and must, both improve palliative care and support assisted dying. We must grasp the opportunity that is in front of us to create a holistic end-of-life care system that will deliver choice and dignity for every single one of our constituents. Full speech
I have enormous respect for the previous Minister, who I have worked closely with, but the point she is making about suicide of women who were victims of domestic abuse is a separate matter. For women to feel that they have nowhere else to go other than to commit suicide, is the most outrageous and horrendous situation, and we absolutely have to tackle and work on that. But this Bill is not the solution to that problem. Full speech
Order. Members can help each other by keeping their speeches to five minutes. Full speech
I completely agree, and it did the other place no credit at all that they did that. There is something interesting and noticeable about all the experiences we have heard today. I have personal experience, which I admit influences my view. I saw my mother go through a very painful death and wished that she had had the choice. I do not know what she would have done, but I wished that she had had the choice. What is interesting is that we have all taken different things from those experiences. Some... Full speech
No, I am sorry. I end with the words of Elise Burns, who, like me, called Kent home, and who sadly died in July with secondary cancer of the lungs, liver and bones. She said she would love peers “to look me in the eye and tell me why me and my friends, and anyone with terminal illness, don’t deserve to die with dignity and to have the choice to die…without pain.” We owe it to terminally ill people like Elise, who are relying on us and who were so filled with hope when we voted in favour last tim... Full speech
I thank my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour for giving way. This week we have seen evidence from Kingston University reinforcing that people with learning disabilities see advice from a doctor not as advice, but as a recommendation. We know from their experience during covid that they were five times more likely to have a “do not resuscitate” order placed on them. Does she share my view that those issues in the equality impact assessment reinforce the point that for people with learning di... Full speech
The hon. Lady is absolutely right. This debate illustrates a difference across this House. It is a difference between those who feel that individual agency is always supreme, and those who, like her and me and many others, believe in social solidarity and our responsibility, indeed our mission, to protect the very people she describes, who will be at risk. There is no doubt that they will be at risk from this Bill. Full speech
I could not agree more with the hon. Member. Especially vulnerable people include those with learning difficulties, those with a history of suicidal feelings or those detained for their own safety under the Mental Health Act 1983. To give just one example, people with Down’s syndrome rely heavily on parents and carers to navigate complex decisions. They are deserving of every possible safeguard, and the Bill does not provide it. Instead, according to the National Down Syndrome Policy Group, “The... Full speech
This week, death has felt rather too close to home for me. My dad, John-my constituent, my great political hero and, indeed, my hero in life-had surgery for lung cancer, followed by a cardiac arrest the next day. Thanks to our wonderful NHS and its outstanding care, the CPR and treatment performed on him were successful. He is now in the process of recovery, to such an extent that I was able to have a detailed conversation with him at his bedside, in which he insisted that I come here to this pl... Full speech
We have heard much today about the legal, medical and ethical questions being raised by this Bill. For me, the idea of ignoring the warnings of the medical professions is absolutely baffling, but my remarks today will focus on poverty, inequality and what dignity really means at the end of life. My daughter Maria has been in my mind throughout my considerations. Maria lived with severe cerebral palsy. She was non-verbal and required round-the-clock care. From the day she was born, we were told t... Full speech
That is a part of our usual parliamentary process and the hon. Lady is right to raise that point. By sending the Bill back to the Lords as it stands, we will prevent that same small group of peers who talked it out last time from doing the same thing again. It is my fervent wish that all the peers- Full speech
On that point, will my hon. Friend give way? Full speech
I applaud my right hon. Friend’s passion and clarity on this issue. On the subject of democratic accountability, he knows that if, as the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood (Lauren Edwards) has made clear, no amendments to the Bill can be accepted from this House, the authority to decide whether the Bill changes passes to the other place. There must be a problem in my right hon. Friend’s argument, with this House saying, “If we are worried about the content of this Bill at the moment, we can d... Full speech
My hon. Friend is making a good case for this Bill, but she will know that when the Bill was introduced in 2024, no equality impact assessment was carried out. Recently, the Government have published the assessment, and it highlights the disproportionate impact that the Bill will have on black and ethnic minority communities and on disabled people. There is nothing in the Bill to address that point. Full speech
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way; she is being very generous with interventions. Is she willing to share with the House what, if any, amendments the Lords made, besides the two she has mentioned, that she thinks should have been added to the Bill, and, if so, why they were not? Full speech
I will not give way because of the constraints of time. I do not think we can any longer justify the contradiction that is at the heart of this debate. We know that people with terminal illnesses are already killing themselves. That happens. It is not at all covered by the protections contained in the Bill that my hon. Friend the Member for Rochester and Strood (Lauren Edwards) has proposed. The biggest contradiction of all for me is the fact that there are those who travel abroad. We know that ... Full speech
I will make some progress. As acknowledged by organisations that provide that care, though, their services cannot address pain and suffering in all circumstances. During the passage of the Bill in the last parliamentary Session, we heard examples of the limits of palliative care from Members with medical expertise themselves. Full speech
I respect my right hon. and learned Friend’s expertise in this matter, but, as he has already heard on the Floor of the House, it is perfectly possible for this House to suggest amendments, negotiate them with the promoters of the Bill, place them against the legislation in the House of Lords and then have them come back to this House for approval. We would much rather that had happened in the first place. This House now faces an invidious choice: if we amend and pass the Bill in this House, it ... Full speech
No, I will not. This Bill does not protect the most vulnerable. It does not mitigate against the poor, the old, people with disabilities, or black and minority ethnic people being disproportionately affected. It does not protect people who are mentally ill. It does not recognise that not everyone has the same level of agency, control or influence over their decision making. The clinicians we would ask to deliver this Bill are saying that it is not even workable-that there is every expectation th... Full speech
Does the hon. Member acknowledge that the handful of peers she refers to include the former presidents of the British Medical Association and Royal College of Psychiatrists, a leading professor of palliative medicine, a former chief executive of NHS England, two former Attorney Generals and the former president of the family division of the High Court? Full speech
As a former mental health doctor and someone who has done research on decision-making capacity, I want to talk about stigma in the brief time I have today. I have looked after many hundreds of people-perhaps thousands-who have self-harmed or attempted suicide. Of course, a desire for one’s life to end can be entirely reasonable and an understandable wish, but it is often a manifestation of a treatable mental disorder. With the right intervention, care and support, people can get better. They can... Full speech
Today is once again a day of heavy responsibility for all of us to decide on what we in this House call “conscience issues”. Many of the people who we represent hold strong and immutable views, and we hear from them. However, we represent many others who hold much more nuanced views and we are less likely to hear from them. They are the ones who say “Yes, but…”, “Well, it depends…” or “I’m just not sure”. Others evolve their views over time, and most can do so in private, but there is no such op... Full speech
I will not; I really need to make progress. The hon. Member for Rochester and Strood and co-sponsors of the Bill have been clear, including in the debate now, that there will not be amendments made in this place. A deliberate decision has been taken to introduce a near-identical Bill and not to incorporate the 77 amendments from the Lords sponsor, including changes that addressed issues that he himself accepted required attention. Full speech
If the primacy of this place is the most important point, why has the Bill’s promoter said that she will not allow amendments in this House at this stage? Full speech
Will my hon. Friend give way on that point? Full speech
I could not agree more. Those people cannot escape the often unintentional prejudice that they face every single day in their engagement with our health services. They know that the Bill would treat them unequally, and they are begging us not to pass it into law. Disability rights groups have shared with us that introducing assisted dying devalues the lives of disabled individuals by framing dependence as an intolerable condition, and one not intrinsic to all our lives. Relying on each other is ... Full speech
I will not. The many people who have shared their experiences of facing death soon have told us that they want to die on their own terms. We also know, through various credible polls, that the majority of people in this country want that choice for themselves. I do not want to deny them the right to be able to make that choice. Full speech
More than 90 Members are trying to catch my eye. I can maximise contributions only if colleagues keep their speeches to around six or seven minutes. Full speech
I am sorry, but I will not give way. I thank all those who took part in the debate on the Bill in this Chamber during the last parliamentary Session. We showed politics at its best through our robust but courteous debates. We did our job, and we did it well; now it is time for us to send this assisted dying Bill back to the House of Lords, so that it can finish what it started. Whatever our respective views on the form and composition of the second Chamber, I hope we can agree that peers play an... Full speech
I think we need to be very careful when we are quoting polling. For instance, we know that Whitestone Insight has been criticised heavily by the British Polling Council in recent weeks for failing to meet its standards in terms of disclosing who has been funding its research. The reference I am making in my speech is to those very robust, independent polls, such as the British attitudes survey, which in 2024 found that 73% of the British public supported assisted dying and have done so over the ... Full speech
As has been mentioned, the Bill has been subject to hundreds of hours of scrutiny, and amendments have been made to strengthen its safeguards, but that does not mean it cannot be strengthened further. As with any Bill, it will benefit from additional scrutiny. The Bill before us today already includes an important clarification on eating disorders that was agreed without a vote in the House of Lords last time. Together with the co-sponsor of the Bill in the House of Lords, Lord Falconer, who is ... Full speech
No, I will not. The Bill would fundamentally alter the patient-doctor relationship. For generations, people have looked to healthcare professionals for treatment and care. That trust is precious, and should never be diluted. The Bill drives a coach and horses through that relationship. The role of our health service should be to do no harm and to stand alongside patients in their darkest moments. I am not wearing rose-tinted glasses; I know that too many people struggle to access the end-of-life... Full speech
No. The Bill was expertly drafted by the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and developed with comprehensive technical advice from officials in both the Department of Health and Social Care and the Ministry of Justice. Full speech
If the hon. Member will forgive me, I have been told to be brief. I am in favour of our being assisted to die as painlessly as possible, and every palliative care nurse and doctor I have ever talked to has made it clear that in the overwhelming majority of cases, that is possible. Of course, we can be anaesthetised, as we all are when we have operations. I hear the argument, but I believe that we need to improve palliative care. What worries me about the Bill-this is my point-is that I do not be... Full speech
No, I cannot give way. There is no time for interventions. As society has evolved and civilisation has advanced, care of the vulnerable, those who are sick and those who need comfort as they near the end of their lives has become a higher priority, and rightly so. In preparation for this debate, I re-read an article that the former Supreme Court Justice, Lord Sumption, published in the Sunday Times in November 2024. We cannot produce legislation that meets every circumstance. Lord Sumption state... Full speech
Coercive control is by definition insidious, and we do not find out about it until years later-the victim themselves might not even be aware of it until years later. With assisted dying, a victim of coercive control would have no “years later”, would they? Full speech
I thank the hon. Lady for being so generous with her time. Is she aware of the sheer number of palliative care consultants who are not prepared to take part in assisted dying, and the impact that that will have on the palliative care system? In my constituency, all three palliative care doctors who work in Plymouth’s Derriford hospital are against assisted dying and are saying that they would leave the profession. How can we offer palliative care at the same time as assisted dying? Full speech
No, I will make a little bit more progress, please. Although the Government are neutral on the issue of assisted dying-then, as now-they have a duty to ensure that any legislation that Parliament passes is effective, legally robust and workable. I am confident in saying to this House that the Bill before us today is a well-designed, safe piece of legislation. Full speech
On that point, will the right hon. Gentleman give way? Full speech
No. I agree that we would have more prosperity and be a richer country, and would have more choice and freedom, but would it really be a happier country? What I stand for, and what I believe in passionately, is respect for all human life-the life of old people who are suffering so much from dementia that they cannot even recognise their own children, and the life of people who have appalling long-term conditions. I believe that there is a greater thing than choice or prosperity; it is love-love ... Full speech
Is the hon. Lady not, like me, puzzled that the promoter brought back the same Bill, despite there being many amendments that the sponsor in the Lords agreed needed to be made and the promoter today acknowledged needed to be included? Full speech
I will give way to my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier). Full speech
I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Filton and Bradley Stoke (Claire Hazelgrove). Mainly because I am a bit lazy, I rarely prepare to speak in debates, and never have copious notes. Her remarks have led where my remarks will go. I will cover the issue of coercion, which hon. Members have mentioned, and, like her, will talk about my mother, who also died when she was 61 years old, unfortunately when I was much younger than my hon. Friend. My mother died when I was 28 years old-many yea... Full speech
May I praise the House for some fantastic speeches all round, including from my hon. Friends the Members for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton) and for Filton and Bradley Stoke (Claire Hazelgrove), and indeed just now from my hon. Friend the Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge (Dr Tidball) and the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Dr Spencer)? I am proud of our House and the way in which we have debated this matter. I have been involved in delivering palliative care and end-of-life care-th... Full speech
I am grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way a second time. This is the democratically accountable House; I think we would all agree on that point. On that basis, is she prepared to accept in Committee and on Report, if this Bill secures its Second Reading this afternoon, amendments authored, debated and voted upon by Members of Parliament? Full speech
I am going to make a little bit of progress. The four-year implementation period means that nobody would be receiving assisted dying until 2031 at the earliest. That would be too late for many people, but it would be plenty of time to make improvements to palliative care, which would go hand in hand with providing the choice of an assisted death for those who still need it. We can, and should, do both. Full speech
Suicide currently outstrips homicide as the main reason for the deaths of women in cases of domestic abuse and coercive control, so what the right hon. Gentleman outlines is currently happening. Arguing for the status quo is not something I feel comfortable with. I feel considerably stronger about the safeguards that I worked with my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) to ensure that the Bill had. Full speech
I certainly do, and I expect that those sort of things were on the mind of the Prime Minister when he made his remarks recently. The first reason why I will not support the Bill today is that I seriously do not want to live in the kind of society in which the frail, elderly and vulnerable feel coerced into “doing the right thing.” We can set up panels, and involve judges in chambers, social workers and all the rest of it, but as humans, we know how humans work. We know the light side and the dar... Full speech
Does my hon. Friend acknowledge that, even with excellent palliative care, there are very similar rates of people demanding assisted dying? In fact, even in 2010, when we had probably the best palliative care in the world, people still went to Dignitas or took their own lives. Full speech
I will give way to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), and then to the previous sponsor of the Bill, the hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater), and then I will make progress. Full speech
I speak on this matter as an active medical practitioner, a transplant surgeon and a cancer surgeon. Much of my clinical practice for the last 20 years has revolved around caring for unwell complex patients, many of whose illnesses flicker between the labels of “terminal illness” and “life-limiting illness”. It is some of that experience that I wish to bring to bear on this debate. Let me start off by acknowledging the varied experiences people have at the end of their life, or their loved ones’... Full speech
It is absolutely right that, for instance, the Prime Minister and the Government have said that improving palliative care must be a priority-I think that is something we can all support. Everybody should have access to good-quality palliative, hospice and end-of-life care in their final moments. Full speech
I commend the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton) for making one of the most powerful speeches we have heard in this place today. The words we use in this debate matter, and if I have learned anything in my 20 years in politics, it is to be honest with people and the public we represent. The soft language of “assisted dying” is misleading the public, because it obscures the stark and very dark reality of what is actually being proposed. We should always have the courage to call thing... Full speech
Will my hon. Friend give way on that point? Full speech
I will once I have concluded my opening remarks. That decision by those peers means that one of the most significant national conversations that we have been having as legislators was brought to an abrupt halt. Who suffers detriment as a result? Clearly, the terminally ill and their families, who had a fair assumption that the will of the people they elected to represent them in this Chamber would be respected, but also those who must navigate our current, unclear laws. They are laws that do not... Full speech
I pay tribute to the hon. Members for Rochester and Strood (Lauren Edwards) and for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) for their hard work on this Bill and the Bill introduced in the previous Parliament. I was a member of the Bill Committee for the previous Bill, and I tabled many amendments, sometimes much to the frustration of the hon. Member for Spen Valley. I want to talk about a number of people who died without dignity and without choice. As a teenager, I remember my mum telling me the story of ... Full speech
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way, and for making an incredibly strong speech. I was part of the Bill Committee, and we gave about 200 hours of assessment to this Bill, which is much more than most Government Bills get. Indeed, the Lords had an enormous amount of time to consider it, too. Saying that there has not been enough scrutiny is simply wrong. Full speech
I have struggled with this vote perhaps more than any other in Parliament. Had I been asked at any time in my life whether I was for or against assisted dying, I would have said that I am in favour of it. I believe that people have autonomy over their own bodies as a fundamental liberal principle. But we do not vote on principles here; we vote on legislation, and this Bill at this time is not one I can support. I do not believe that it is safe. I do not believe that it addresses the very legitim... Full speech
I thank my hon. Friend, and I do share those concerns. I have met with constituents who have also been impacted, and I have seen that in the equality impact assessment. My point is whether people would be making this choice in circumstances none of us would want for ourselves: the person unable to access the social care they need, the person worried about the financial consequences of their illness, the person who feels like a burden to those they love, or the person facing loneliness, dependenc... Full speech
I will not give way. I am asking Members today to start the process of sending this Bill back to the House of Lords, so that they can continue their important function of fulfilling their constitutional role. Full speech
I speak as a survivor of domestic violence and as a survivor of an attempted suicide many years ago, while campaigning about domestic violence. Does the right hon. Lady agree that coercion is not always external? Coercion can also be internal-“Am I a burden on my family?”, “Can they afford to look after me?” That coercion is not picked up on in training, because it comes from deep inside when a person is vulnerable and at their lowest ebb. Full speech
I commend the hon. Member for her powerful testimony. I know that she has personal experience of this matter. When you visit places like Govan and Pollok, you know what vulnerability looks like. Those people cannot send their voices down here via the mic, the TV studio or a billboard in Westminster tube station. We need to make sure that they do not feel the burden of making what some call an option, or a choice, their obligation or duty. Full speech
I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way. Quite rightly, when we enter this life, the NHS and the state support us through obstetrics, gynaecology, maternal health, neonatology and paediatrics. However, at the other end of our life, when we leave this world, the charitable sector picks things up, and the majority of support is delivered outside the NHS. Surely that cannot be right as a society. Surely we have to fix that and sort out palliative care before we go anywhere near this Bil... Full speech
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his intervention. Obviously, Members have previously raised concerns about doctors getting their prognosis wrong when it comes to how long someone is able to live. My understanding is that, given the international evidence, six months was seen a reasonable line to draw, because as the time of death gets closer, the accuracy of the diagnosis is increased. Full speech
I welcome the opportunity to give my personal views on this Bill, as colleagues in health have taken over responsibility for it. I have spent most of my life as someone who was highly sympathetic to the cause of assisted dying and imagined that I would support it if I ever was an MP, but that changed in 2018 when I read the Gosport War Memorial hospital independent panel report published in that year. The report should be more widely read, and I often wonder why it did not get the attention that... Full speech
We have been through that process. There was a Committee that had hundreds of hours of scrutiny and properly kicked the tyres on the robustness of this legislation. What we need to do as a House is send the Bill back to the House of Lords so that they can finish their job. We did ours. Full speech
Today I am going to share the most personal of stories publicly for the first time, and I ask for the kindness of colleagues in not intervening so that I can. Last October, my mum, Ruth Hazelgrove, chose to bring her late-stage terminal illness to an end, on her terms, at home, with dignity and with a strength that I can only try to imagine. Mum had just turned 61. She had endured significant health challenges for almost half her life. When mum was 32, she was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer,... Full speech
I am not going to, because Madam Deputy Speaker has been clear. The idea that if we do not pass the Bill today, we are going to walk out of here and women in our country will be any safer is an absolute myth. Doing nothing is not the same as acting. Full speech
I will continue, if my hon. Friend does not mind. Clause 2(4) of the Bill before us today says: “For the avoidance of doubt, a person is not to be considered to be terminally ill only because they are a person with a disability or mental disorder (or both).” As a member of the previous Bill Committee, I worked for over 90 hours to ensure that all the changes that I requested were made, and they are now on the face of the Bill brought forward by my hon. Friend the Member for Rochester and Strood ... Full speech
I really cannot; I am so sorry to my hon. Friend. We could have dealt with this over the summer; we had time to work on it. We could have included, for example, a clause that would have given an equal right to palliative care or a simple assessment of unmet need-something, anything, to allow there to be a genuine choice. But that opportunity is now gone. Let me be absolutely clear about what today’s vote is and what it is not. It is not another vote on the principle of assisted dying as on an or... Full speech
The point I was making, which I believe many colleagues will recognise, was that having over 100 hours of debate and more than 1,000 amendments was not conducive to the idea of making serious progress with the Bill; it was, to all intents and purposes, a filibuster. Our role today extends beyond debating the Bill. It is also to reaffirm the will and primacy of the House of Commons. Full speech
Let me make some progress. I have four main concerns: funding, the assessment process, the lack of institutional opt-outs and, crucially, the auto-commencement clause. Can we all look our local NHS teams in the eye, knowing that we are ultimately taking more resources from them? The equality impact assessment explicitly acknowledges the impact on disabled people and those from ethnic minorities-people we often speak about in this place, because we are the ones who can speak up for them. This Bil... Full speech
It is an honour to be called to speak in this debate. Indeed, it is the first time that I have. I am a sponsor of the Bill and a member of the Health and Social Care Committee. I congratulate the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood (Lauren Edwards) on how she introduced this debate, and the hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) on her outstanding work and championing of this issue over all this time. If this Bill is defeated today, it will leave us with a significantly unsatisfactory and... Full speech
Not at the moment. It is on the foundational principles of the Bill that I primarily want to concentrate today. The first is the idea of a “six months to live” label. “Terminal illness” is a fast-changing medical diagnosis in the modern medical world, and it is becoming an increasingly meaningless term. Only yesterday evening, I was in the company of a professor of respiratory medicine who, with rightful satisfaction, told me that many of his stage 4 lung cancer patients who were designated with... Full speech
That brings us to the Front Bench contributions. Full speech
I feel sorry for my hon. Friend from the Home Affairs Committee, but I really must make progress, because Madam Deputy Speaker has been clear to me that I must. I say to colleagues who supported the Bill before and have wrestled sincerely with the issue since: you do not have to repudiate the vote you cast last time to vote differently today. You do not have to decide that assisted dying can never be right. You do not have to abandon the compassion that led you to support the principle. You need... Full speech
I am going to keep going. Members have often spoken of unexpected recoveries that have led them to oppose the legislation. That is the news we wish for every person we love and for every loved person we have. Last year, I was told twice that I would die-most likely or potentially-given complications I had that I will not speak about at the moment. I know what it is to want to survive. I know what it is to fight. But for many, that day is not coming-there will be no reprieve of that kind-and we c... Full speech
I am sure that the hon. Lady is aware that the law in Canada was brought in after a Supreme Court judgment, whereas our Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights have repeatedly refused to rule on this, saying quite rightly that it is a matter for Parliament. Does she accept that this jurisdiction is different, and that this is a matter for Parliament, and can be changed only by Parliament? Full speech
As a practising surgeon who deals with bile duct cancer, I can reassure my hon. Friend that there is almost never a reason that someone should be in that state, with feculent vomiting, if they were treated appropriately and all the relevant palliative care measures were in place. Full speech
I accept what the hon. Lady says, and I know she speaks with great sincerity, but it is still the case that under this Bill, somebody could be seen remotely-without a face-to-face appointment-where they are not alone and the coercive perpetrator may be forcing them. Full speech
I congratulate the promoter of the Bill, the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood (Lauren Edwards). For her, and for the hon. Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater), this is a remarkable feat of political endurance; I pay tribute to them for that. I start by declaring my interest as a registered medical practitioner and an active doctor, but far more importantly, as somebody who has sat by relatives in their final hours and minutes, as many in this Chamber have done. That really has an impact, ... Full speech
On that point, will the right hon. Gentleman give way? Full speech
Looking around the Chamber, I see many Members wishing to contribute. In case I did not make myself clear, I urge colleagues to keep their contributions to five minutes or less; otherwise, I will be forced to put a speaking limit in place. Full speech
On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker, I have huge respect for the Minister, but she has said that she will not take any interventions. She is a very good Minister, and I trust that she will answer in detail the points that have been raised in the House today; having discussions with her and the Government after the debate is too late for today’s vote. I know she is a thorough and assiduous Minister and I am sure she will do her best to do that, but it is important to make that point to the ... Full speech
Respectfully, I will not take interventions. Many colleagues wish to speak, and I am mindful of time-please forgive me. I am disappointed and concerned that the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood (Lauren Edwards) has reintroduced an identical Bill to the House and ignored all the issues revealed, even the ones admitted to by the noble and learned Lord Falconer in the other place. This Bill’s failure is not just a sign of how inadequate the private Member’s Bill process is for a Bill of this ma... Full speech
What we are considering today is not the general principle, “Do we or do we not agree with assisted dying?”; it is this Bill. We are not a debating society; we are a Parliament. I therefore ask my hon. Friend why it is the case that virtually no disabled people’s organisation in this country supports the Bill. Disabled people often feel voiceless, and I think it is important that their voices are heard today. They are outside Parliament, so I would like her to address that point in her speech. Full speech
I would point out that there is a range of views among those in the palliative care community. It is specifically for that reason that the Bill allows them not to be involved in the process if they do not wish to be. Full speech
I pay tribute to all the Members who have shared their story; I feel we have learned a bit more today about how the hon. Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips) became how she is. I am sure we have all heard so many heartbreaking stories from our constituents, and I want to thank all those who have contacted me, whether or not we agree, because sharing these stories is profoundly difficult. One constituent with incurable cancer contacted me, asking for the freedom to choose when to give up... Full speech
I am very grateful to the hon. Lady, whose speech is a series of oxymorons: she does not like polling that is against the Bill, but likes it when it is in favour; she feels the Bill should be amended in the House of Lords, but not with amendments that would improve safeguards. On that subject of safeguards, will she explain to the House why the previous legal safeguards to assuage doubts about efficacy were entirely dropped from the Bill? Full speech
I thank my hon. Friend for the very powerful speech she is giving; she truly sets the tone when she talks about disabled people. There was a poll out this morning of thousands of disabled people, and many of them rightly said that they need assistance to live. We have to get our palliative care and social care right, with the right investment, before we can even begin to engage in a debate about assisted death and assisted suicide. Does she agree that those should be our priorities, not trying t... Full speech
The right hon. Lady is making a very important point, which I have considered at length during the last two years. Many amendments relating to coercive control were made to the Bill to ensure that all professionals involved have training, and there are multiple checks for coercion throughout the process, which do not currently exist. At present we check for coercion only when someone is dead. Full speech
The hon. Lady speaks with great passion. Does she agree that members in the other place bringing forward amendments such as suggesting that women who had been through the menopause, or men, needed to have a pregnancy test before they could be eligible for an assisted death, was a deliberate attempt to wreck the Bill, as opposed to undertaking their important role of scrutiny? Full speech
This is a very difficult moral and practical question, but for me it is fundamentally about whether we can act to relieve human suffering. We have heard a number of profoundly moving speeches in the debate, and I highlight in particular the speeches of my hon. Friends the Members for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton) and for Filton and Bradley Stoke (Claire Hazelgrove). We are talking about people who fear or face unbearable pain, choking or gasping for breath, or loss of control at the end of the... Full speech
I quote the story of one of my constituents, a motor neurone disease sufferer. He said that, if he had had the option of assisted dying two years ago, he probably would have taken it. But, in his words, “I would have missed out on the most fulfilled two years of my life and the knowledge that I can have more moments like this ahead of me.” His words are, “Please don’t do this, life is worth living.” Does the right hon. Lady agree? Full speech
The last time this House considered this Bill on Second Reading, I was keeping a secret. While hon. and right hon. Members were debating the issue, I was grappling with my own terminal diagnosis. I was told that I have stage 4 incurable metastatic breast cancer. I was overwhelmed with grief, fear and anxiety; I was scared of what was to come, and fearful of how it would impact my family and my loved ones. I was scared that I was going to get really poorly and thinking, “How will I cope? How will... Full speech
I will not; there is not time. While I do not seek to say that the Bill will be used in that way-to deliberately bring about an end to the lives of confused or elderly patients-my worry is about how it will insert itself into that battle in our country between the best and worst of our natures, in families, conversations and settings where people, as much as we do not like to believe it, actively, for selfish reasons, wish that their relatives were dead, and where those relatives know that their... Full speech
My hon. Friend is making a very informed speech on how the medical landscape has changed, but while the arguments we make today are the same, the political landscape has changed as well. Would he agree with the Father of the House that we now have a Prime Minister committed to solving the problems with social care and palliative care, and that in Scotland, where the hon. Gentleman comes from, we saw the political landscape change in front of our eyes? MSPs initially voted for similar legislation... Full speech
Coercion is something that we absolutely need to tackle and understand as a society, but I do not think that this Bill has the safeguards that are needed. Full speech
On the specific point of hospices, I absolutely understand what the hon. Lady is saying; I have visited our local hospices, and I have sat beside my father when he was dying, but not in a hospice. The point about palliative care absolutely matters, but the Government do not recognise the funding that the sector needs. There is a postcode lottery, and the Ministers are not even answering written parliamentary questions, so does the hon. Lady agree that until this is fixed, we should not be having... Full speech
As co-sponsor of the Bill once again, I am acutely conscious that there is more at stake today than merely the fate of those who are facing their end, because the conduct of the other place means that our democracy is also on trial today. I sat in the Chamber at the other end of this building on a number of occasions when it was debating the Bill, and I saw more of the debate on television, and I watched with unfolding horror the game that was being played there-a game that was marked in homes a... Full speech
My hon. Friend makes a very important point. Each year, independent hospices help around 20,000 people spend their final days outside hospital settings, and this saves the NHS an estimated 1.5 million bed days and more than £800 million annually. Our Prime Minister is right to say that we must fix palliative care, and I greatly welcome his commitment to work cross-party to end the decades of political drift on social care, too. Ballooning budgets have hit not just the NHS but local authorities, ... Full speech
The hon. Lady is setting the scene for what the Bill hopes to achieve, but she cannot ignore the overwhelming 68% of the public who believe that it must be paused, or the 73% of people who say that it should be rejected outright. The public see the danger. This House must halt the process, pause the Bill and instead focus on properly funding world-class palliative care. Full speech
My hon. Friend talks about who makes our laws, and she has talked in articles that she has written about the primacy of this place. If the Bill goes forward, is she willing to accept amendments? She has brought forward a Bill that is exactly the same as the previous Bill, despite its sponsor in the House of Lords himself saying that there needed to be 77 amendments to make it safer. Full speech
I am sure that I am not the only Member who came to this place because I felt that the voices of the people I wanted to represent are seldom heard, and I felt a duty to ensure that they were heard in decision making at the highest level. While I am the Member of Parliament for everyone in Hyndburn and Haslingden, and I recognise that many people in my constituency might support the principle of an assisted death, when I vote today, I must consider the perspective of the many hundreds of people w... Full speech
Briefly, because my hon. Friend has made a few interventions already. Full speech
I am here because we do need to change the law, so that dying people have the choice of a better death than too many horrible progressive terminal diseases allow for now. I am here because of my own conscience; I am a humanist and a patron of Humanists UK. I am also here with the support of so many of our citizens who desperately want to see a change in the law. Many of my constituents have written to me to tell me their personal story of losing people under the worst circumstances because the s... Full speech
Sorry, I will not take interventions. Those peers did not show the same respect for the repeatedly expressed will of those who face the end of their lives. Full speech
“Erskine May” gives this House a way to send what are called “suggested amendments” to the Lords as a separate motion alongside the Bill, when it goes to the other place. It has not been used since 2004, but does she recognise that if some Members of this House think certain amendments are crucial to the Bill, they can do so? Full speech
Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to speak in this important debate. Understandably, we have heard some passionate and courageous contributions, such as the one from the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton), who is no longer in her place. She made a remarkable contribution to the debate. In this House, we discuss a whole range of issues week in, week out. Many of them are rather mundane, but nothing is more important than issues of life and death. To be ho... Full speech
There were a number of amendments around points of clarification-some external organisations wanted some words made a little clearer, although they seem robust to me-that I certainly believe could be made in the House of Lords. Full speech
This is the first time during this Parliament that I have been able to speak publicly about assisted dying and why I support a change in the law and, indeed, this Bill-a decision I voted for 11 years ago when the then MP for Wolverhampton South West, Rob Marris, put his assisted dying Bill to Parliament. I think of all the people who have suffered unbearable pain and loneliness since that first debate took place. I will make three brief points, and forgive me if I do not take interventions-I kno... Full speech
The hon. Lady makes the case so powerfully. I am going to disappoint Members now, because I will not take any further interventions for some time. Like the hon. Lady, my fear is not principally for those who are confident, articulate and able to insist on what they want; it is for the person who does not want to make a fuss-the person accustomed to putting everybody else’s needs before their own, who internalises that coercion and feels guilty about the care they require, or has simply been depr... Full speech
I thank the right hon. Lady very much for giving way and for sharing that really difficult story. Does she not agree that the current system has no safeguards at all against coercion, and that is exactly why we need this Bill? Full speech
On that point, will my hon. Friend give way? Full speech
Can I just say that there has not been one confirmed case of coercion in any of these jurisdiction anywhere in the world? Full speech
I thank the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood (Lauren Edwards) for reintroducing this Bill and giving us another chance to debate the issue-although part of me regrets, as I will explain, that we have that chance. I respect everyone who has taken the responsibility of coming here today to debate this again, and I particularly respect those who have shared their very moving personal stories with us all. Most of all, though, I respect and I would like to apologise to those who are again going t... Full speech
I am still not giving way. The two clinicians, followed by the panel, will ensure that the person is of sound mind, and will make sure that this is something that they want to do. A lot of time has been taken up debating the issue of coercive control. I defer to my amazing hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips) on that subject; her entire career has been spent fighting against coercive control. As she said in her powerful speech, there are not robust measures in place for ... Full speech
I will not be giving way much, Madam Deputy Speaker, but I will give way to the hon. Lady. Full speech
I am extremely grateful to the hon. Lady for giving way. She has outlined the will of this House, but she may remember that, during the passage of the last Bill, I asked the then Prime Minister at Prime Minister’s questions to do what has happened with similar Bills in the past-on homosexuality, on abortion and on the death penalty-which was to give time on the Floor of the House for Committee of the whole House. That would massively strengthen amendments that are made by using the whole House t... Full speech
I am not going to give way, because we are really pushed for time. I want to say to those people that the Bill is tightly drafted. It specifies that it is for people of sound mind who have a terminal diagnosis of six months or less, and that has to be verified by two clinicians and then a panel to ensure- Full speech
No, I am sorry; I will make some progress. It is my fervent wish that all the peers in the House of Lords will accept that important distinction between their Chamber and ours, and fulfil their role in the usual way. In doing so, they can consider and send an amended Bill back to us for a final vote before Royal Assent. Full speech
I am going to make some progress. This is the first time that I have spoken on this subject, and I want to set out briefly why I have consistently supported choice at the end of life. First, there is the simple principle that, faced with a terminal diagnosis, it should be the right of the individual to choose how they leave this world. If we offer the choice of an assisted death in the circumstances detailed in the Bill, as my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Dr Prinsle... Full speech
I pay tribute to my hon. Friends the Members for Filton and Bradley Stoke (Claire Hazelgrove) and for Birmingham Yardley (Jess Phillips), and the hon. Member for Rutland and Stamford (Alicia Kearns), for sharing heartfelt stories, and showing the strength that I would not be able to -my mum passed away in November last year. Their stories, and what they shared with us today, are inspiring. Like many across this House, I have spent a great deal of time thinking about this debate, reading constitu... Full speech
I will not. Some of those Members had just a few months before been specifically rejected by the electorate and replaced in this House by others, and I am afraid that they cannot be trusted not to do the same thing again. I grant my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Sir Jeremy Wright) that this is a less than ideal situation. However, I know that the sponsor in the House of Lords is willing to entertain amendments being tabled in the Lords, which will come back... Full speech
No, I will make some progress. If, at that point, Members of this House decide to vote the Bill down, I and many others, in this Chamber and outside, would be upset and disappointed, but I would accept that as a result of the proper democratic processes being followed. What I cannot accept, and what many people both inside and outside the Chamber cannot accept, is the current situation, where a small number of unelected peers filibustered legislation that was supported by this Chamber. That is n... Full speech
This is a very difficult day. No one could fail to be moved by the grief of campaigners and by the deeply personal stories, whether born of their own experience or of those they have lost. Those voices deserve to be heard, and it is important in this place that we respect all views, whether we agree or disagree; but as we deliberate today, I go back to the words of the hon. Member for Bradford West (Naz Shah) in a past debate, asking us to remember “the quiet ones, those who may be less organise... Full speech
Members should be in no doubt that the Bill we sent the Lords last year was robust. Full speech
Will my hon. Friend give way on that point? Full speech
I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. It is a privilege to open this debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill-a Bill that will give dying adults, under very stringent criteria, choice, autonomy and dignity at the end of their lives. What is being asked of MPs today? It is a fair question, given that this House already voted to send the near identical Bill introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley (Kim Leadbeater) back to the House of Lords in June la... Full speech
The Government have been clear, as the Government of the previous Prime Minister were, that they remain neutral on assisted dying, but that they have responsibilities to make sure that the legislation we bring forward is workable. We received those assurances on Third Reading of the previous Bill, when we voted in favour of it as a Chamber. Full speech
As Members of this House, our fundamental obligation, above all political considerations, is to protect those who are most exposed, most vulnerable and least able to advocate for themselves. I acknowledge that colleagues from all parties view this Bill as a measure of compassion, but if compassion is to truly serve the public interest, then it must be paired with rigorous scrutiny and an examination of all consequences of the intended legislation. I voted against this Bill on Second Reading in 2... Full speech
I am very grateful to the hon. Lady for allowing me to intervene. She mentions that the Government have a responsibility to ensure this legislation is lawful and workable, yet she is the Bill’s sponsor-that responsibility rests on her, too. Yet despite knowing that the Bill’s sponsor in the previous Session brought forward over 30 amendments and eight new clauses of her own and the Bill’s sponsor in the Lords brought forward 77-a recognition that the Bill is manifestly unworkable-she has chosen ... Full speech
I have watched the assisted dying debate for many years, since it started in Oregon. Many countries across the world now have assisted dying, including some of our Crown dependencies, and I am pleased that this Bill builds on the good and rejects the bad that can be seen. I am also reassured that there have been hundreds of hours of debate and scrutiny, which has built the Bill in front of us, so I am very comfortable supporting it. I know that people have extremely strong views on this Bill, an... Full speech
Not just now. Our Committee asked our independent expert panel to look into the quality and availability of palliative care, and the results should give everyone in this room pause for thought, because we do not have a universal offer of palliative care in this country. The report points to a postcode lottery of provision. Hospices are largely funded through charitable donations, which means that in better-off areas there is better care. The Committee hears constantly about the social determinan... Full speech
I begin by thanking the hon. Member for Rochester and Strood (Lauren Edwards) for her courage and compassion in bringing this Bill back before Parliament. The debate in this House, the other place and across the country is profoundly important. “We need to get better at talking more openly about death and what dying well means.” Those were the words of the end-of-life care clinical lead during my last week’s visit to the new dedicated palliative and end-of-life care ward at Addenbrooke’s hospita... Full speech
I have long said that my support for this private Member’s Bill is contingent on a commitment to improving, not sidelining, the palliative care system, and I pay tribute to the courageous and dedicated palliative care workers of our country, including those at Mount Edgcumbe hospice in my constituency. Despite being seen as charitable organisations that work alongside the NHS, hospices provide a vital line of support and reduce the cost of care in our NHS, which is something that should be consi... Full speech
They were dropped in favour of a stronger safeguard, which was a multidisciplinary panel of people with different perspectives who were trained in spotting coercion-a psychiatrist, a legal expert and a social worker, bringing other people in with different perspectives-to ensure that the person taking the assisted death decision was doing so in an informed and settled way, free from coercion. That was a strengthening of the Bill, not a weakening. Full speech
Before I begin, I declare an interest as a patron of my local hospice, Community hospice. I want to be clear from the outset that I am not opposed to assisted dying in principle; I understand why many people support a change in the law, and I recognise the compassion that motivates those views. However, today I will set out why I remain unable to support this Bill. This debate evokes deeply held views across the House. I respect my colleagues who have reached a different conclusion, but the ques... Full speech
I will not. I believe the concerns raised by organisations such as the Royal College of Physicians and the British Geriatrics Society about the uncertainty of the end of life, safeguarding and the definition of terminal illness deserve careful consideration. I cannot separate this debate from my own experiences. Members of my family have experienced discrimination in the healthcare system. Those experiences leave a lasting impression; they remind us that trust, access and outcomes in healthcare ... Full speech
The right hon. Member for North West Hampshire (Kit Malthouse) made it clear that it is because of the actions of a very small number of peers, and he has no faith-and neither do I-that that would not be repeated this time around. Full speech
I am going to carry on; I will be very brief. There has been a lot of concern-quite rightly-about disabled people and people from black and Asian minorities and whether they will be harshly dealt with. In fact, the evidence from other jurisdictions is that these people do not go for assisted dying-it is actually a white, middle-class, able-bodied thing-so in a way we have the opposite problem to deal with. Let me also say, to answer a point made earlier, that studies done in California showed th... Full speech
I supported this legislation first in 2015 and will do so again as it goes through its processes. I am truly grateful for all the work that so many hon. Members here and in the other House have done on the detail of the Bill. I am confident that it has been improved significantly and that we have learned from the experiences of jurisdictions across the world, many of which have had assisted dying for many years. Let us remember that in most of those jurisdictions only about a third of people who... Full speech
I chair the all-party parliamentary group on hospice and end-of-life care, and I wonder whether my hon. Friend shares my concern. Given that an estimated 170,000 people die in this country each year without access to palliative and end-of-life care, there can be no choice until hospice and end-of-life care are properly funded. Full speech