Tom Rutland

I rise to speak in support of new clause 10, which is about choice. In fact, the Bill is about choice: choice at the end of life and choice to have a dignified death. It is about a choice that is currently being denied to many in untreatable, excruciating pain at the end of their lives—a choice that the majority in this country would want for themselves. New clause 10 is in that same spirit. It would offer practitioners a choice, by ensuring that there was no obligation on any person to provide assistance to a terminally ill adult seeking an assisted death. That includes those such as my constituent Aimee’s grandmother, who repeatedly asked her, “When will it end?” from the bed in her hospice, where, despite the best efforts of staff, they were medically unable to treat her constant pain and legally unable to make good on her wish to, in her own words, be helped to go. The Bill allows doctors to choose not to participate in the assisted dying process if they so wish. The new clause would improve it by extending that provision to all registered medical practitioners, health professionals, social care professionals, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. It would also make it clear that no person is under any duty to act as a witness or a proxy in the process. It would further amend the Employment Rights Act 1996 to ensure that no one could be subjected to detriment by their employer for providing assistance to those seeking an assisted death or for choosing not to do so. That is a good thing: it respects people’s choices. Some will not want to aid someone seeking an assisted death because of religious or other principled objections, but some, like my constituent Karen, will want to. Karen wrote to me setting out her father-in-law’s terminal diagnosis of a brain tumour, his fear of losing control of mental and bodily functions as his condition progressed and his hope that the Bill would pass in time for him to benefit from it. Karen is not simply a relative of a terminally ill person; she spent years working in palliative care, watching people lose their independence and dignity as a result of their terminal illness, with patients asking her how they could end the suffering for both themselves and their families. She was heartbroken to witness their distress and pain over days, weeks or even months, knowing that nothing could be done for them. In their painful final stretches, some felt suicidal and some felt a burden. For that reason, I must oppose new clause 16, which would rule ineligible for assisted dying anyone who is substantially motivated by a number of factors, including feeling a burden, or suicidal ideation.