M
Member
Speaking in the House of Lords on 13 March 2026
Debate
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) BillContribution
Therefore, if a doctor raises assisted dying, patients might interpret that as an implicit recommendation about, for example, what they face in handling the illness. Is it a suggestion that the suffering will be intolerable? It might even be a comment on the value of someone’s life at that point. As the noble Baroness, Lady Campbell of Surbiton, explained, patients could well hear this as something like: “You’re better off dead”. That may be the worst-case scenario, but it might even be heard as, “We recommend it”. If you go to the doctor and they say, “Have you thought about assisted dying?”, you will think, “Oh my goodness, they’re recommending it”. It is certainly not an impartial intervention, because doctors typically do not suggest causes of action that they believe to be harmful. If it were raised, we would understandably assume that it was a suggestion in our best interest, and that causes real problems.
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