Member

The noble Lord, Lord Birt, said that in Australia a very large percentage—I am afraid I have forgotten the figure—of applications for assisted dying came from people with cancer diagnoses. Last week we debated and gave a Second Reading to the Rare Cancers Bill. One of the features of rare cancers—which, collectively, are not that rare; they account for over 40% of cancer diagnoses—is that the prognosis at the time of diagnosis is so short in many cases that they would immediately be in scope for this Bill. The effect of those cancer diagnoses is absolutely catastrophic—many of us have had that experience in our families—and it creates a huge sense of anxiety. There is, first, the anxiety about how you get through the process—what does it involve?—and, secondly, the obvious anxiety of whether you will be able to start your treatment within the NHS target deadline.