Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)

My Lords, I give special thanks to those who shared personal experiences with us, in particular the noble Lords, Lord Markham and Lord Dobbs, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Newcastle, the noble Baronesses, Lady Hollins and Lady Grey-Thompson, the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Prentis, and my noble friend Lord Cashman. I will single out the speech made by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Prentis, in particular, as it was—for everybody—incredibly impressive and moving. I will say how welcome she is back here, and she has the warmest possible embrace from the House. There was a moment when we heard from the noble Baroness, Lady Rafferty, who had been the president of the Royal College of Nursing; we then heard from the most reverend Primate the Archbishop of Canterbury, who had been the chief nurse of England and Wales; and sitting on the Woolsack we had the noble Baroness, Lady Watkins, who was a distinguished professor of nursing. That is an indication of the depth of knowledge we have in this House. I am not going to say the normal thing about what a great debate it has been. Honestly, it has been a horrible debate. Unlike almost every other debate I have ever participated in, there has been quite an edge, particularly from the opponents of the Bill. I am not going to say that it is we who should end this debate; the views of the people outside the House should be taken into account. I quote the much-missed Lord Williams of Mostyn, who, whenever we behaved badly, always said, “Remember, there are people out there who are watching”. I will finish with three voices. The first is that of Elise Burns, who is in the Gallery today. She has terminal cancer. She said that she would love Peers “to look me in the eye and tell me why me and my friends, and anyone with terminal illness, don’t deserve to die with dignity and to have the choice to die as they choose, without pain”. Nat Dye, whom noble Lords on both sides of the House met regularly during the course of the Bill, died a few weeks ago. His sister Becky said: “I feel betrayed by the system really, that people are kind of able to serve their own agendas rather than being representative of the people in the general population”. Finally, I quote Dan Tuckley’s sister, Kate. Dan got a very aggressive form of cancer and at the very end of his life went, in conditions of quite considerable distress, to Dignitas in Switzerland. Kate said: “This Bill running out of time is a complete travesty for the people of the UK. It will mean that the views of the people of England are not being properly represented by the people trusted to do so. It means the British people have been let down”. I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.