Contributions
1,183 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)This is a key group of amendments. I shall specifically speak to amendment 303, which would prevent a person from seeking multiple assessments from alternative doctors if a second…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship once again, Sir Roger. I am looking forward to this week’s debating. I want to draw the Committee’s attention to further evidence…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty First sitting)I was making the point that there is surely some value in what the hon. Gentleman describes as an adversarial process, in which the decision maker is required to consider whether…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)I will speak briefly to each of the amendments in this group. I will allow my hon. Friend the Member for Reigate to speak to the amendment in her name, but I state clearly that I…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)I want to respond to a point made by the hon. Member for Stroud. It is relevant to the whole debate about whether we are talking about a medical treatment at all. He made the…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)What the amendment clarifies is that the doctor does not have to look at any records at all unless he or she considers them relevant. It gives total discretion to the doctor to…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)Will the hon. Gentleman give way?11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)I will come on to that. I agree with him: amendment 422 is a very helpful amendment, and I support that. It is a very good suggestion that wider consultation should be made, and…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)As I have said in my many exchanges with the hon. Gentleman, I want to see the good practice that he claims—absolutely accurately, I am sure—to perform is applied across the…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)It does seem an extraordinary gap in the Bill, but I am afraid it is not unique to this Bill. In countries where assisted dying in some form is legal, there are remarkable…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty First sitting)The hon. Gentleman is making a very good speech in defence of the change, but could he help me understand something? He said that he supported the previous proposal, involving a…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty First sitting)I absolutely agree with what my hon. Friend is trying to do. This is a genuine question: does he think that it is possible at this stage for the Government, the Medicines and…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty First sitting)rose —11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty First sitting)It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Esther. [ Interruption. ] You are Dame Esther, aren’t you?11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)I completely agree with the hon. Lady’s point. The conversation goes on in the way the doctor would want it to, but they have at least asked the question. Is it not very simple?…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty First sitting)Let us not rehash the conversations that we had in the evidence sessions, but I would advise Members to review those conversations. Indeed, there is further publicly available…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty First sitting)I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for those points because he helps me to direct my argument. It is essential to discuss the evidence from abroad about the complications that…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty First sitting)Are you not? That is an extraordinary oversight. That must be rectified as soon as possible— I am sure it will be. I will speak in support of the amendment in my name and those in…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)Will the hon. Lady give way?11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty First sitting)I am afraid that the waters are pretty muddied by the Bill. It states a direct contradiction of the Hippocratic oath, which requires doctors to save people’s lives and do nothing…11 Mar 2025