Member

The question of motivation matters if the Bill really is, as its proponents say, about dealing only with those people with a prognosis of six months, but even that is very uncertain. There are many cases of people living much longer than a six-month prognosis. If this really is about people with a terminal illness, what is wrong? What is the objection to asking people why they wish for an assisted death? If it is because they are afraid of pain, they do not think that they can get assistance, or that those things could not be dealt with, we should surely have in place arrangements that allow for people to have those conversations. At the moment, none of that is in the Bill. The motivations might not be simply about autonomy but about constraint. Not everyone has the privileges that many Members of your Lordships’ House have in being able to say that any choice they might make is unconstrained. We need to legislate for those people for whom many choices are profoundly constrained.