Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill [HL]

My Lords, at this stage—I am the 66th speaker in the debate—everything that needs to be said has been said and said well. I have listened to virtually every speaker. Nevertheless, I could not ignore the quantity of letters and the pleas to speak and vote against the Bill that I and many of your Lordships have received. They run into the hundreds, each one representing the concerns and experiences of those who took the time and trouble to write. I tried to read them all, even if it was not possible to reply to them all. I did not receive a single letter in favour of the Bill. If the noble Lord, Lord Haskel, is correct in saying that parliamentarians have a duty to represent the views expressed throughout the country, that is exactly what I am now doing. That said, the debate has been extremely well balanced. There have been many brave speeches and arguments on both sides, underlining the extreme sensitivity and difficulty of the issue. I subscribe to the theologically based opposition to the Bill, but I can explain my position very simply. One reason why I am against capital punishment is that I find it unacceptable to ask and expect any person to carry out the killing of another human being, even after due legal process. One of the consequences of the Bill is that doctors and nurses would be asked to go against all that they believe that their Hippocratic oath represents. I was surprised to hear from the noble Baroness, Lady Tonge, that there are now doctors who do not swear it. From the many representations and all the evidence that I have seen and heard, the vast majority of medical practitioners are against being required to do this. The noble Baroness, Lady Emerton, convincingly described their case, and others have added to that. Even if there were no alternative, I would vote against the Bill. I believe that there is an alternative, however: palliative care, the case for which was convincingly made at the start of the debate by the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, and subsequently by many others. Let us now focus our efforts on making palliative care more comprehensive and more of a priority. In my last minute, I pick up a point made much earlier the debate by my noble friend Lord Gilmour of Craigmillar—I am glad to see him returning to the Chamber—about the amount of money spent on a campaign against the Bill. He quoted a newspaper article. I have not had the opportunity to verify the figures that he quoted, but I beg leave to doubt and dismiss them. I am most surprised that the noble Lord, as an experienced politician, should believe everything, or anything, that he reads in the newspapers, whatever the paper.