Baroness Berridge (Con)

My Lords, I support Amendment 39A, tabled by my noble friend Lord Blencathra. I am pleased to see my noble friend Lord Wolfson at the Dispatch Box, because although I support the amendment, it is more that it enables us to raise important principles, not necessarily the details. I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Hollins, for outlining informed consent and mentioning that the patient has to have sufficient and reliable information. The noble and learned Lord’s Bill says that there should be a “clear, settled and informed wish”. This is another occasion where I fear that the Bill is legislating for an analogue age. Much of the principle around informed consent comes from a situation where the patient is gaining much, if not most, of their information from the clinician or support staff. That is not the case today. We know that people have access to many more sources of information. I ask the Minister and the sponsor of the Bill: what is the situation in regard to reliable information or an informed wish if in front of the clinician is a young person who basically has just been watching on a doom loop information that is false? We have the problem now—there may be an issue around the development of the law on informed consent here—of people having a lot of misinformation or false information. From the wording of the amendment, it is not clear what the duty would be on the clinician if they are aware that the person has an informed wish but it has been informed by false information.