Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)

That is a very important question. There is a difference between excluding certain motivations, which is what Amendment 30 would do, and asking why, which the noble Baroness, Lady Smith of Newnham, raised. I see force in the proposition that somewhere in the Bill, somebody has to ask why—for two reasons. First, as was raised previously, if you ask why, it might throw some light on circumstances that suggest classic coercion. Secondly, and separately, it might deal with exactly what the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, is referring to. Take an utterly absurd example: someone says, “I want an assisted death because I cannot deal with the noise that’s going on in my head”. The doctor could then reply, “Well, actually, that’s a building site that will stop tomorrow”. If it is something like that, one should know. I am attracted by the idea of something in the Bill that says why. That has to be asked somewhere down the line. This also connects with our previous discussions about the multidisciplinary team engaged in looking after the person, which might well have a much better view about why.