Baroness Noakes (Con)

My Lords, I want to make a few points following the contribution from the noble Baroness, Lady Fox. First, she referred to MND and the problem with some people who appear to live quite a lot longer than expected. The real problem with MND is that these patients almost certainly will not qualify to be classified as terminally ill under the Bill. The speed of progression of the disease usually means that getting a six-month diagnosis is almost impossible, so motor neurone disease patients will find it very difficult to fit themselves within this. This is, I think, widely acknowledged. Secondly, all this discussion has been based on the prognosis given by a doctor to his patient. The Bill requires it to be established that the individual is terminally ill for assisted dying to be available. That decision must be made by the first doctor, the second doctor and the panel. These are not doctors giving informal indications to their patients about the amount of time they may have left to live; these are people having to come to a professional judgment. Of course, if they cannot agree on that professional judgment, the decision will not be that an assisted death can be given. It seems that, in the context in which the prognosis is given—that is, to satisfy the definition of “terminally ill” in this Bill—there are many safeguards that would mean that we have a relatively safe definition of six months by the time all those who are involved in the process agree it.