Coroners and Justice Bill

I had assumed that the co-signatories to the amendment might wish to speak in support of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, but if they do not wish to do so I am very content to speak now. As your Lordships may have anticipated, I do not support the amendment that the noble and learned Lord has moved. I declare interests as a member of a variety of Christian organisations and as an honorary fellow of a number of royal medical societies. In my view, respect for and protection of human life are a defining characteristic of a civilised society. This country has long had protection in place in one form or another against assisted suicide. I quite understand what the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, said about his amendment, but any proposal to alter the current position involves a judgment that a certain kind of life, or a certain span of life, has become unworthy of support from that principle. If you attempt to alter the law on suicide and the law relating to attempted suicide, you immediately bring to the attention of those who suffer from serious disability the point that, if another type of life is thought to be unworthy of protection, or is deemed unnecessary to protect because of the degree of suffering or weakness that may result from it, that judgment can be applied also to disabled people. That is the reason, I believe, why so many disabled people object to any change in the relevant law. That aspect has to be kept in mind when we are considering a matter of this kind. For the purposes of my remarks I shall assume that the law is as the Court of Appeal accepted that it was. As regards the appeal to the Judicial Committee of this House, the amendment tabled by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, may result in a case being brought before the new Supreme Court. However, the committee may be able to deal with it so quickly that that will not happen; if not, it may be one of the early cases in the new Supreme Court building. As I say, I am assuming that the law is as it was accepted by the Court of Appeal in England in the recent case. In that situation, the amendment tabled by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, proposes a procedure that in my view is unworkable. I leave the medical aspects to others, but senior members of the profession have said that the obligation placed on registered medical practitioners by the amendment is unworkable. The amendment refers only to "registered medical practitioners". They are not required to have any particular skill or expertise in relation to assessing capacity. The main reason why I feel that this amendment is not justified is that the present law, with and on the assumption that what is involved is a criminal offence, permits the circumstances to be looked at by the criminal prosecuting authority. In recent times, there have been a comparatively small number of cases in which the Director of Public Prosecutions and the police felt that there was no obligation to raise a prosecution—I think that the thunder is giving emphasis.