Member

A further question is whether the Bill applies a proper test for access to assisted suicide. Autonomy is the all-important other factor once a person has a diagnosis and the requisite prognosis. This test is not widely used in other jurisdictions, and the consequence of using it is that there is, under the Bill, no consideration of all the issues which we have discussed thus far during the Bill’s progress through your Lordships’ House: inability to access palliative care, pregnancy, disability, serious mental illness, poverty, bad or no housing, a sense of being a burden. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, told us that these considerations may properly contribute to a person reaching a clear, settled and informed wish to die, but it can well be argued that, if a person’s problems, due perhaps to poverty, isolation or a fear of being a burden, could be addressed if they had a little more money or a decent place to live, they might well choose to live, not to die.