Lord Rook (Lab)

My Lords, Amendments 154, 210 and 211 are in my name. I also support my noble friend Lady Goudie’s Amendments 202, 208 and 209; she is unable to be in her place today. I will endeavour to be brief. Together, these amendments address two questions that I believe unite noble Lords across the House: how we can protect vulnerable people from coercion; and how we can safeguard young people. On preventing coercion, Amendment 154 would establish a simple but essential safeguard: that assisted dying should be patient-initiated, so a doctor or other health professional should not raise the subject unless the patient has done so first. The proposed legislation rests heavily on patient choice and the absence of coercion or pressure. If freedom from pressure is the legal foundation of the Bill, the design of the process must minimise avoidable influence. Dr Matthew Doré of the Association for Palliative Medicine cautioned the Commons Committee that, if clinicians introduce the subject of assisted dying, vulnerable patients may reasonably perceive that as an endorsement or even a recommendation, particularly given the power imbalance that is already in place. We have rightly heard how much agency and patient choice play a role in these debates, but, if an assisted death is truly a matter of patient choice, why allow the authority figure in the room to introduce the option? The Bill already makes it clear that there is no duty on doctors to raise assisted dying. If there is no duty and preventing coercion is central, why not make that safeguard explicit in the Bill? I ask my noble and learned friend Lord Falconer of Thoroton this: if the Bill’s case rests on patient choice and the absence of pressure, why resist the clear rule that this conversation must always be initiated by the patient themselves?