Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Con)

My Lords, I will speak to my Amendment 151, which is supported by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Fox and Lady Hollins. It was also referred to approvingly by the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell, in her earlier remarks. My amendment would prohibit medical professionals from raising assisted dying as an option, unless explicitly requested by the patient. I will be very brief in introducing this amendment, by pointing out to the Committee that it goes to the heart of a juxtaposition suggested by the Bill. On the one hand, we have an increasingly large, frail, vulnerable, often elderly population, who may not have the full autonomy that the sponsor of the Bill suggests. On the other hand, we have a National Health Service that, by the nature of events, is almost always underfunded and feels that it will be underfunded. If you put those two things together, there will be an inevitable pressure to cut costs and present the cheaper option to the patient who is seeking guidance. I have carefully read the sponsor’s words in Clause 5 and it is true that, on paper, the patient must be offered the option of palliative care as well as that of an assisted death. However, in these circumstances of financial restriction, I am concerned about the patient being steered in a certain direction. I will not regale the Committee with horror stories from abroad, usually from Canada, about precisely this taking place. Were I to do that, the sponsor of the Bill and others would, quite rightly, point out that there are safeguards in the Bill that are not present in Canada. I would point out in return that safeguards can be whittled away over time. In making that point, I mean nothing to the detriment of the sponsor of the Bill; I am sure that he does not mean it to happen but, over time, people can make amendments and changes to legislation. I will step back from this amendment and look at it in this way. I believe that assisted dying is intrinsically problematic and, if the Bill ever got further, I would vote against it at Third Reading. However, my concern while we are here is to improve the Bill. If we are to have such a Bill, I want it to be in the best—I should say the least bad—condition possible. Noble Lords know that nothing in the amendment would alter the basic architecture and structure of what the sponsor of the Bill has proposed—in relation to the first doctor, the second doctor, the panel, proxies, the regime for regulating substances or any of that. The amendment would do nothing whatever to prevent anyone seeking an assisted death. All it would do is to prevent a medical professional raising it. Therefore, I suggest to the noble and learned Lord the sponsor that, if he wants to make some progress with the Bill, he might accept this amendment or one of the many others in this group to a similar end. I look forward to hearing him when he replies but, whether he does accept it or not, this amendment would write a safeguard into the Bill that is not there, and I commend it to the Committee.