Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Lab)

My Lords, I recognise that the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, will have heard this before, as will have many others, but the fact of the matter is that the Bill talks about assisted dying. “Dying” tells you what it is all about, so I do not think that we need to have the word “suicide”. I say this because I have spoken with the families and loved ones of people who wish to have an assisted death; those who wished that their loved ones had had an assisted death, because they could see the suffering endured by the person who died and the people who were caring for them; and those who are left behind. I have had many conversations and those people all feel strongly that those who want to have an assisted death are not committing suicide; they want to regain some control and want to live for the last few months of their life with some comfort. Just because they ask for an assisted death does not mean that they are actually going to fulfil that, but it gives them and their families comfort. So, please, can we not talk about suicide? We are talking about dying and that is absolutely fine. I do not wish for the people who are already suffering or the people who are caring for them to have more distress in their lives.