Baroness Hollins (CB)

My Lords, I thank the noble and learned Lord for an opportunity to reflect on this debate. Nearly 250 Members have spoken in the debate, not the minority that have been spoken about. I remind the House that I am a past president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and a fellow of three other royal colleges. When my husband was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, he read that motor neurone disease was the most feared illness. He took a different view. He joked that he was just fading away. He had good care. I wish everybody did. He died naturally and peacefully at home with a smile on his face. Fear is infectious. Please let us not feed on fear. The Bill’s aim was to provide patients with a choice at the end of their lives. For that to be meaningful, it needs to be a real choice. I have introduced amendments to try to address the other side of choice: the lack of palliative care and the gaps in services that underlie so many of the distressing stories that we have heard; the lack of clarity about the actual means by which someone would be assisted to end their own life; and the risk of implicit institutional coercion, when new processes and procedures change the culture in the NHS.