Lord Harper (Con)

My Lords, let my start by picking up the point that was just made by the noble Lord, Lord Winston. We should be plain and simple in saying what is going on. In effect, the Bill’s central purposes are to amend the Suicide Act and to legalise somebody’s ability to assist someone else in killing themselves. We should be frank about that; that is what we are doing. If people find us being clear and speaking plainly about what we are doing either uncomfortable or distressing, that should make us pause and ask ourselves whether what we are doing is the right thing. We should not change the language to make the thing that we are doing more palatable. We should speak plainly about it then judge accordingly. There are some real consequences. One of them was set out by my noble friend Lord Shinkwin when he referred to people with learning disabilities. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, will correct me if I have got this wrong, but I think that, when he gave evidence to the committee, he was clear that he wanted someone with a learning disability to have the same ability to access assisted suicide as anybody else, assuming that they meet the other eligibility criteria. My noble friend Lord Shinkwin put it very well when he said that people with learning disabilities need to have things explained in clear and straightforward language. That is really important. In an earlier debate, my noble friend Lord Markham talked about relying on the experts, but we cannot do that because we know that they do not always make the right decision. We know that, during the Covid pandemic, many people with learning disabilities were given “Do not resuscitate” notices because some people had made the decision that their lives were not as worthwhile as others. People made decisions about them that they would not have made about somebody who did not have a learning disability. It is important that we make sure that the language we use about this decision, which could not be more important, is understandable and that the consequences are understandable for everybody who will be impacted by such a decision. My noble friend Lord Shinkwin made that point well. My noble friend Lord Frost has already made the point about the use of the phrase “committing suicide”; I reflected on it before I signed his amendment. Personally, I do not like using that phrase—the “commit” piece, not the “suicide” piece—so I paused before I signed his amendment. However, I thought that having a debate and pressing on clarity was important. Obviously, we are in Committee. If my noble friend were to bring forward these amendments on Report, I would want to work with him on the language. I think that removing “commit” would be better because, as my noble friend correctly said, the Suicide Act has removed that vocabulary. But using the word “suicide” is accurate. Just because somebody has a terminal illness, that does not mean that in taking their own life they are not committing suicide. It is important because it gets through to people the consequence of what we are doing here and the fundamental reshaping we are doing to the way in which society looks at this. That is why so many of us are concerned about it.