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Lord Taylor of Holbeach (Con)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 30 January 2026

Debate

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Contribution

My Lords, I am reluctant to involve myself in this debate, but I see this whole legislative process as being about practicalities in the end. It is good that we have had an exposition of the articulation of the motivation of the people seeking success for this Bill, but I am very concerned as a citizen because I think this is about palliative care and relief from suffering. The Bill should have been about those very matters. However, it is not. It is about all the incentives, from government to public authorities. For those people that the legislation actually motivates, it is about promoting the idea that assisting dying—or assisted suicide—is available; whereas the medical profession prefers, and what all the medical colleges have said they want to see, is proper palliative care. We do not want a competition for the funding of one against the other. I can see that in individual and family lives—and the social life we have together, governed by a Government—the pressures are not going to be towards relief of suffering through palliative care but for assisted suicide. I do not agree with that and that is why I oppose the Bill.

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