Contributions
308 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twelfth sitting)I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford West and the hon. Member for East Wiltshire for their speeches. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for York Central (Rachael…25 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Tenth sitting)We are all in this together. We all want the safest Bill possible, so we should defer to the legal side to form the safest language. I am not a specialist on this legal subject…12 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eleventh sitting)This is a really interesting discussion, but it misses the point of how clinical people assess coercion. What we really do not want is a tick-list saying, “Confirm that you have…12 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eleventh sitting)I do believe that what was actually said in evidence was that one of the reasons was that the person felt a burden, but there were other reasons. From the Californian doctors, we…12 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eleventh sitting)In my experience, often the reason people talk to me about assisted death—obviously, it is not legal at the moment—is fear of uncertainty at the end of life. That is one of the…12 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eleventh sitting)In carcinoma of the bronchus, it is a real risk—and it is a risk that oncologists will tell me and tell the patient. That is the sort of thing that people adopt assisted dying to…12 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eleventh sitting)I think we are going slightly off topic. The hon. Gentleman is talking about pain control, not whether pain can be used as the sole criterion to qualify for assisted dying. I do…12 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eleventh sitting)As a doctor, if I, under this legislation, came across someone who gave their main reason for ending their life as being that they wanted to save money for their family, that…12 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eleventh sitting)There is something called continuing healthcare, which would fund end-of-life care, if someone has a terminal prognosis of six months or less, so care costs would be covered by…12 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eleventh sitting)I do not believe that the intention of the Bill is simply about being able to have an assisted death because of pain. Nothing in the Bill says that. We heard evidence from Dr…12 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Tenth sitting)I would like to bring the Committee back to a certain amount of reality. What we are talking about is how we can assist clinicians to assess coercion and pressure. I like the way…12 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Ninth sitting)I have a simple question: is it not illegal to deprive people in prison and homeless people of the same care that the rest of the population receives?11 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Ninth sitting)First, it is impossible to argue that, because we have never been able to have assisted dying in this country, so it is a spurious argument. However, I do not quite understand the…11 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eighth sitting)I apologise to the hon. Lady for my continued interruptions, but I want to put across some important points. In our medical system, the Mental Capacity Act is currently used to…11 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eighth sitting)If we are not sure about capacity, we must refer to psychiatry, so that a specialist organisation can make a more detailed assessment. However, most people do not fit into that…11 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eighth sitting)I use the Mental Capacity Act almost every week in my work. As Chris Whitty said, in the majority of cases, whether someone has capacity is clear and indisputable. For a narrow…11 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eighth sitting)We also heard evidence that if we make this more complicated and introduce more terms into the Bill, then there will be less safeguarding for patients. That is why we are all…11 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Eighth sitting)I do believe that the Mental Capacity Act enables people to make very serious decisions, such as stopping cancer treatment, so I would absolutely dispute the hon. Lady’s…11 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Ninth sitting)I am sorry. My hon. Friend is suggesting that a system that has been tried and tested in court and by clinicians throughout the country over the last 20 years is not preferrable…11 Feb 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Seventh sitting)Q I would like to go back to the point about depression, because it is common. In the general population, 20% are on antidepressants—on SSRIs. GPs diagnose the vast majority of…30 Jan 2025