Contributions
1,183 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)The hon. Lady is absolutely right. We will address in later debates the point that insufficient attention will be given to the reasons why an application has been refused. If an…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally 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 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 (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 (Twentieth sitting)Will the hon. Gentleman give way?11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)I beg to move amendment 348, in clause 8, page 5, line 10, at end insert— “(c) inform the person’s usual or treating doctor and, where relevant, the doctor who referred the person…11 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twentieth sitting)The hon. Lady is absolutely right, and that is very welcome. My concern is that there is no obligation to do anything about it. There is no obligation for the doctor to integrate…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)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)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 (Nineteeth sitting)I am afraid to say that we do impose obligations on doctors to do the things that we expect them to do. If that is offensive to doctors, so is all the guidance from the General…05 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Nineteeth sitting)I am grateful for your ruling, Mrs Harris, but I hope you will not mind if I do respond to the question.05 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Nineteeth sitting)Okay. I might address the question at a future point, because the issue of how we reflect on these proceedings outside this place has come up privately.05 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Nineteeth sitting)I respect that point, and it is a fair charge: that doctors would not do this. Nevertheless, as I have been stressing, we are in uncharted territory, and there is a genuine…05 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Nineteeth sitting)I am afraid that the English language is rather subjective. The service would rely on guidance or case law that had been built up, although one hopes that there would not have to…05 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Nineteeth sitting)We cannot have it both ways. We cannot give doctors and clinicians autonomy, which the Committee has repeatedly seen as a ground to reject all sorts of obligations that I and…05 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Nineteeth sitting)The hon. Lady is absolutely right. We should not forget that doctors are indemnified against any civil claims under the Bill. Nevertheless, they will want to protect themselves…05 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Nineteeth sitting)I completely agree. The hon. Member for Spen Valley makes the important point that these patients are, indeed, being treated already; one would hope that the palliative care…05 Mar 2025