Lord Moore of Etchingham (Non-Afl)

I accept that that is the argument made by the noble and learned Lord. However, the argument I am trying to make here in a limited time is about public opinion and its effect and how we should regard it. When the noble Lord, Lord Barber, said that we have a privilege here, he was right, but I think that he was criticising the privilege in the wrong way. We must exercise that privilege because, unlike most people in this country, we have been able to consider the Bill at great length. We owe it to those people to consider it seriously and to consider all its elements and effects. I can just testify for myself—because I am not an expert on the subject—but I have learned a tremendous amount in these discussions. I understood the broad arguments of principle before these discussions, but I have just re-read the Explanatory Notes that the noble and learned Lord and others issued about the Bill when it began. The three words “National Health Service” hardly appear in them. This was the big revelation to me and, I think, to many people. It is a matter not just of what you deeply believe about this very important issue—choice versus wider sanctity of life and so on—but of what will happen to the most important public service in this country and all the ramifications of that. It is quite wrong to speak of a small minority of people who have been constantly agitating within the House. I do not know who those people are, but I know that many noble Lords on both sides, certainly on the side that is critical of the Bill, are very learned people on the subject of the effects on the National Health Service—for example, the noble Lord, Lord Stevens, and the noble Baronesses, Lady Cass and Lady Hollins. It is very important that they be heard and understood. I sometimes think the Bill would be clearer if it were entitled the Terminally Ill Adults National Health Service (Assisted Suicide) Bill, because it is not just about assisted suicide. It is about how it would be carried out. It would be carried out by the National Health Service in almost all cases, so we need to debate its costs, its professional conflicts and all the difficult questions that arise. We have been doing that. I come back, therefore, in justification of what we have all, on both sides, been trying to do. This is described accurately as a conscience Bill. If you have a conscience about something, you must be confident that the result will be safe. If it is not, how could you possibly not object to it? How could you just say, “Oh, well, there we are”? I do not think you can. In his opening remarks, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, said that the Bill has not failed on its merits, and I agree with him. It has failed on its demerits, and it is those that many of us cannot in conscience support.