B

Baroness O'Loan (CB)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 14 November 2025

Debate

Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Contribution

My Lords, under the Mental Capacity Act, the decision is not made by one individual; the Mental Capacity Act provides for decision-making, which includes the experiences of families et cetera. It is a profound process. This is not a profound process; it provides for a doctor to make a decision about whether a person has capacity and a second doctor to sign it off. It is not the same thing at all. I attended a meeting, as did the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, during which a doctor told a story about a patient who had signed up for assisted suicide. When the time came, he took a sip of the medicine and said, “I’m not drinking this”—upon which his family told him, “You decided you would die this day; you must do it”. He would not drink it. It took him seven days to die.

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