Lord Empey (UUP)

I accept that that may well be the case. I am simply referring to what was in Hansard in 2021. The noble Lord may have changed his mind, as we all do over our lifetime, and rightly so—if you have a completely solid view of everything throughout your life, it is not a good thing. I am not in any sense trying to demean his position in any way; he is a very highly respected member of your Lordships’ House. My point is that his reference to the euphemism is still valid in my view. Coming to the nuts and bolts of how things would work in practice, at Second Reading of this Bill, and indeed in previous iterations in which I have had any role, I drew attention to one of the key issues: changing the nature of the service that we are funding. If we decide as a Parliament to make assisted dying, or whatever phrase one wishes to use, a legal activity, that does not necessarily mean that the National Health Service has to pay for it. Can you imagine the finance committee of a trust discussing its budget and getting into an argument? The sums may be modest, but to even put something such as that in this context, when we are talking about life and death, is fundamentally flawed, morally and in every other way. The noble and learned Lord needs to reflect on some of these matters.