Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill [HL]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Joffe, for introducing this important and long overdue Bill and I salute his bravery in doing so. I was chairman of an organisation called Exit, a possibly politically incorrect name these days. I took over the post when the doctors who were then running it, although in favour of the principles of this Bill, were not prepared to publish a pamphlet of advice on the subject and thereby risk prosecution. I became chairman and, with the support of my committee, published the pamphlet and was not prosecuted, although I did spend a night in the cells—one of the only two occasions on which I have made the front page of the Evening Standard. I salute the noble Lord, Lord Joffe, for the fact that he has been prepared to endure. The reason for my support for this Bill is simple. The country slowly becomes more sensible, and the sheer lunacy of having a law that made suicide a crime has, thank God, vanished. I hope I never have even to contemplate suicide myself, but if I do, I wish to be able to rely on my nearest and dearest to help me to perform this legal but disagreeable action without fear of prosecution. And what I desire for myself—I hope that this is a principle which your Lordships accept for all your legislative actions—I would not deny to others. As a keen reader—like most clergymen—of crime fiction, I am aware of the dangers and temptations involved. I therefore welcome the safeguards, even though some of them go further than I would personally want. Finally, I am, as most of your Lordships know, a priest of the Church of England, currently licensed to a regular ministry in the parish in which I live. In addition to my crime fiction, I keep up my theological reading and I have found no theological or ethical objection to the Bill which I consider holds water. I will therefore vote for it and I urge your Lordships to do likewise.