Contributions
1,851 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)The hon. Lady will know that we rely on medical practitioners to make professional judgments all the time. My hon. Friend the Member for Stroud has set out the range of things…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)Of course, if we can find ways to improve the Bill, we should—that is what this Bill Committee is for. But the input from my officials and parliamentary counsel legal advice have…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)How amendment 436 is drafted makes for a real challenge, because it is not clear what detail should be set out in the person’s medical records or in the report to the chief…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)The challenge with amendment 436 is that the policy intent is not as clear as it is in clause 9. That clause is about conversations in advance of decisions about committing to the…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)My hon. Friend will have noted that a number of amendments have been drafted in collaboration with the Bill’s promoter, my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley. I think that…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)I think what I am saying is that the word “complication” contains a multitude of potential interpretations and meanings. The work that would need to be done by the Government to…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)Absolutely, if the Committee chooses to accept the amendment, it goes into the Bill. If the Bill gets Royal Assent, it becomes the responsibility of the Government to ensure that…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)My job and that of my hon. and learned friend the Justice Minister is to defend the integrity and coherence of the statute. The concern that we have with the word “complication”…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)Amendment 435 would require the co-ordinating doctor to escalate the care of an individual to the appropriate emergency medical services if the assisted dying procedure has…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)In order to ingest, there has to be self-administration. The self-administration is the precondition for ingesting the substance. That is my reading. I hope that that satisfies my…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)I thank my hon. Friend, who speaks with considerable clinical expertise. It is about exactly that difference between self-administration and administration. If we cleave to those…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)The right hon. Member sets out clearly the difference between self-administration—the concept at the heart of the Bill—and the performance of the act either jointly or by the…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)The hon. Member’s concerns are absolutely noted. I completely understand that hon. Members are not comfortable with this, but what I am trying to do is set out the Government’s…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)What is hard to do in this Committee is imagine and agree on how many different scenarios there can be. Every circumstance and every individual experience will be different, so it…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)I thank the hon. Member for that intervention. The hon. Member for Solihull West and Shirley pointed out earlier that the scenario that he has just described would constitute more…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)Currently, clause 18(6) permits the co-ordinating doctor, in respect of an approved substance provided to the person under subsection (2), to undertake the following activities:…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)My interpretation is that it would not be, because if someone were actually tipping the pills into the mouth of the patient, they would be going through the act of putting the…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)I will pretty much repeat what I have just said to my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford. There is a dividing line, as the Government see it, between assistance and…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)One of the fundamental principles of the Bill, which my hon. Friend the Member for Spen Valley has prioritised, is self-administration. It is not for me as a Minister to opine on…18 Mar 2025HANSARDTerminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Twenty-fifth sitting)It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Roger. Before I speak to amendments 497 and 498, on which the Government have worked with my hon. Friend the Member for Spen…18 Mar 2025