Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, the amendment is not about assisted suicide, but rather euthanasia. If a person cannot commit suicide, then the assistance is not assistance with suicide, it is murder, manslaughter or euthanasia depending on the situation. The Dutch experience has shown that a considerable number of people do not feel psychologically able to commit suicide themselves but find the passive role of holding out their arm somewhat easier. We have evidence from Seale’s work that there is no physician-assisted suicide in this country. The only thing I can commend in the speech of the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice, is that he did not see this function as being part of a medical practitioner’s role. I agree. I was horrified that he did not stress that the role of medical practitioners is to relieve patients’ distress. The amendment covers most medical conditions from childhood onwards. Disabling and incurable illness is anything from arthritis to diabetes. There is not even a requirement here that the disease is particularly advanced. There is no requirement that the person has capacity. How long should their so-called "free and settled wish" persist? Does the certificate ever expire before the patient? Can parents get a certificate for their child? I could go on but I will not bore the House. The concern of the coroners has to be listened to very carefully. This is alien to their remit. If such a service were set up, it would be inundated. Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide prescriptions, which have been rising year on year, are an indicator. If we extrapolated those on a population basis, we would have about 1,400 requests. If we took the Dutch figures, which include euthanasia and would fit with the wording of the amendment, we would have around 12,000 requests. That would be a considerable workload for a coronial service which is already working hard. Coroners’ certificates would need monitoring; otherwise, we might find fakes offered for sale on the internet, just as we do for ID. This is Report stage. The amendment is so flawed that it seems to be euthanasia on demand masquerading behind a sanitising cloak of assisted suicide, without clear safeguards or monitoring, and we have already clearly rejected assisted suicide on two occasions. I fear that this amendment would sabotage the clause that was clearly drafted to ban internet suicide promotions. Such a ban is much needed.