Baroness Lawlor (Con)

My Lords, I would like to refer to Amendment 6 from the noble and learned Lord the sponsor of the Bill, because I have concerns with it. In inserting the words “has a preliminary discussion with a registered medical practitioner”, Amendment 6, which is described as a drafting change, adds to the uncertainty about what discussion takes place with the patient and when. It is a dangerous uncertainty as, if the Bill was so amended, it would be left open for one or more such discussions to take place before the person is 18, so long as the discussion that is required as a preliminary discussion takes place after the person has reached 18. In particular, the amendment would do nothing to restrict the scope of Clause 5(3), which permits a medical practitioner to engage in preliminary discussion about assisted dying with a patient who raises the subject. Since there is nothing to tie the discussion referred to as “a preliminary discussion” to be inserted in Clause 1 with “a preliminary discussion” in Clause 5(3), the amendment will not stop these discussions taking place with under-18s. Grammatically, a “such and such” refers to any “such and such”, and the word “preliminary” does not imply a restriction on number; there could be one or 100 preliminary discussions. Although Clause 5(3) does not oblige the registered medical practitioner to discuss assisted dying under the Bill’s provisions with any patient who raises it, Clause 5(6) obliges the practitioner concerned to direct the patient to “where they can … have the preliminary discussion”— and that is the preliminary discussion. Therefore, even as amended, the Bill requires that any patient, whatever their age, who raises the possibility of assisted dying under the Bill is enabled to have a discussion about it. It cannot be objected that in Clause 5(6), the reference is to “the”, not “a”, preliminary discussion, since here “the” refers back to the preliminary discussion in Clause 5(3) to Clause 5(5), where the phrase used is “a preliminary discussion” or “such a preliminary discussion”—that is to say, any preliminary discussion of the matter. These points may seem technical and pernickety, but consider how the Bill, even as amended, might lead a young person to end their life prematurely without proper adult consideration of the matter. Take a 16 or 17-year old who is suffering from a disease that makes their life expectancy uncertain, or who has been warned that they might die rapidly or deteriorate and die at any time. We may all try to imagine, but we can hardly know how such a young person might feel: isolated, lonely, afraid, and perhaps hypersensitive to remarks or innuendo, real or imagined, or indeed to some of what we have heard today about social media and pressures from peer groups in the Netherlands. They might share not only the worries about the illness, but the normal doubts of people of that age that even those in the best health who are depressed and unsure of themselves have. How easy for the unfortunate young person to say, “I wish I were dead”.