Member

My noble friend Lord Pannick spoke very passionately last week about the word “reasonable”, which is a very difficult word for disabled people. We were promised reasonable adjustment in both the DDA and the Equality Act. “Reasonable” sounded reasonable at the time, but it is actually used to stifle and stop the inclusion of disabled people. Last week’s debates made me even more convinced that we have to provide really good information to people who are requesting assisted suicide, so that they absolutely understand the pros and cons of what they are entering into. This clarity is really important. I do not think we can necessarily have a list, but it is way too vague at the moment. Many of us have talked about the equality impact assessment, which is not good enough, and we have been told that the Government are not going to revisit it. However, I do not believe the numbers in that equality impact assessment—they are going to be much higher than we think they are.