Coroners and Justice Bill

I would like to go back to the beginning. Only 115 people have gone to Switzerland: that is not a huge flood of people. I would imagine that they know what Dignitas is like. People do not make decisions to go to such places without finding out about them. I am sure that it is not perfect, but as those people have been given no option, it is the only place they can go to. We heard about Dr Anne Turner. I watched that film and I hope that your Lordships also watched it. One had to keep a box of tissues by one’s side when watching that film. There was no way that there was any problem of pressure; in fact the pressure, as has been stated, went the other way. The children did not want their mother to go. The older two children accepted it more easily, but the youngest one was distraught. However, they went with their mother because she was a doctor and she could tell them what was in store for her. She is not alone: there are many people who know—and their doctors know—what is in store for them. It is not about being hastened to slip away. We have heard that death diminishes us and all the rest, but every one of us here is going to die. I do not believe that all of us are so sanguine about lingering for months and years and not being able to do anything. Even if we were in one of the hospices of the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, we would still be lingering. Is that what we want? I would not like that. I speak only for myself. If any of your Lordships would like to spend your last months or a year in a hospice, that is your choice. My choice is not to do that. I would like to give effect to my choice. I am an individual and I should have control over my death as I have control over my life. Medicine has made such huge strides. A lot of medical people like to keep everybody alive much longer than they used to. Now we are being told that they are killing people off, but they are letting people die a natural death instead of putting them on antibiotics when they cannot do anything. Their hearts keep beating and they do not have infection so they keep going. There are so many cases like that. I do not think that that is the future we want. I have to say a word about disability. As time has gone on, disability has become a much more important issue for society. We can judge our society reasonably well by the way we now think about and care for disabled people. I do not think any one of us would ever want the disabled to be counted with people who take such decisions for themselves. This is a question for me. I am thinking of myself. I could be in a situation where I was going to die and linger in a half life. We have heard that pain can be controlled, but what sort of state are you in when you are getting a cocktail of painkillers?—not a particularly wonderful one. We are also told that there is no double effect and that doctors can tell whether you are given too much or too little, but there is not much point in that for me. That is how I feel. I want the right to be able to go to Switzerland and consult my family and friends. If two doctors told me that I was going to die badly from whatever I had—not just old age—what would be wrong about going to Switzerland? That is the way I feel, and I am sure that other people in this Committee think about these things carefully, because this is what is in store for all of us.