Lord Falconer of Thoroton (Lab)

My Lords, can I share everybody’s genuine pleasure that the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, is here? Can I not congratulate him on telling us about it? I would have done, but he told me he did not want it, so I respect his wishes. I thank my noble friend Lord Rooker for being willing to share his experience of the death of his first wife. I also associate myself with my noble friend Lady Royall; from personal experience, one should not feel that one has got some obligation or is in some way defective if one dies quickly of cancer or takes a particular attitude. We should not be censorious one way or the other as to what attitude people take when confronted with a terminal illness. How would we all react when confronted with it? We probably do not know. First, we have had a debate about the six months, and I am incredibly unkeen to revisit the six months because I do not think that that was the frame within which the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, tabled his amendment. His amendment is about what is to be told to the patient rather than whether six months is right—I am gratified that the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, is nodding. I will focus on the issue: how should the patient be told? His amendment is in Clause 5, which is about the preliminary discussion. It requires the doctor conducting the preliminary discussion to discuss the person’s diagnosis and prognosis. It requires the doctor to refer to any treatment available to the patient, and the likely effect of the treatment, and it requires them to go through “all appropriate palliative, hospice or other care”— it is not just palliative and hospice care; it is other care as well— “including symptom management and psychological support, and offer to refer them to a registered medical practitioner who specialises in such care for the purpose of further discussion”. It is a detailed discussion about the prognosis, diagnosis and likely effect of treatment. I was struck by the speech made by the noble Baroness, Lady Watkins. The idea that you are told you have six months to live, and that is it, is extraordinarily unusual. The idea that this happens is very unlikely; that it could happen in this context seems to me to be extraordinarily unlikely. Noble Lords will be aware that, in Clause 7, there must be a record kept of this conversation. The iniquity that one is trying to deal with seems to me to be unlikely to arise. Should we be putting into the Bill the specific statistical material that has to be given? If you are relying on a median or an average, do you have to say that you are doing that and what the variations are? No, I am not in favour of that. There is a power for the Secretary of State, by codes of practice or guidance, to give indications as to how it should be dealt with. I trust doctors more than many people in this debate. It would be unhelpful to put in words such as those in the amendment into the Bill, so I am against the amendment. On a completely separate issue, we have debated the question of the prognosis and the reason for the six months. I strongly adopt the words of the noble Baroness, Lady Noakes, that this is not the view of one person; this is the view of two doctors and a panel of three. This is not just a question of one prognosis and it is over. That is an issue that we dealt with previously. I am delighted that the noble Lord, Lord Moylan, was in a position to move the amendment. I am sorry to say that I do not agree with it.