Coroners and Justice Bill

My Lords, I am grateful to all noble Lords who have participated in this debate, perhaps particularly to the Minister for pointing out the purpose behind what I am doing, and for drawing some attention to a number of the points that I made in my introduction, which were studiously ignored by a number of colleagues because of a degree of discomfort about the whole business. I am used to dealing with people who have decided for the moment that they wish to bring their lives to an end. Before I left Belfast to come here today, I dealt with two such situations and, when I return tomorrow morning, I will be dealing with some more. It is a constant issue for me, and in making the judgment on whether it is free and settled will, which in the vast majority of cases it is not, hugely significant efforts must be made over periods of years to try to protect people from bringing their lives to a close when it is clearly a function of mental illness rather than of free and settled will. But I can appreciate that that is not the experience of many noble Lords—in many ways, these are rather more academic than political matters. But I make it clear that this is for that minority of people who do want to take such a course. The suggestion that somehow or other I do not understand that that, properly, is the desirable, alternative course for the majority of people is not really a fair listening to what I have said. One can easily strike debating points. There was the issue about whether I could name a particular physician who had been opposed to chloroform. Well, as it happens, it was brought to my attention subsequently that one of the fiercest critics of Sir James Simpson, who developed the use of chloroform, was a professional colleague of the noble Lord, Lord McColl—the American surgeon, Henry Jacob Bigelow. Let us not pretend that there are not people to whom this applies, even if it is a minority. Medical practitioners, politicians, theologians and others have not always got it right in terms of how the future judges their judgments about morality. This is not about putting disabled people in a bad place, but it faces the reality that they often find themselves in a bad place. Caring for that is not some academic issue, but a painful and difficult emotional issue with which we must find a way of struggling. It is clear that the House is not at this point in a position to offer me any guidance as to how things might be taken forward in such a way that this small minority of people might have their concerns held, just as for the majority of people their concerns are being addressed. Despite the comments about the coroners, I still take the view that some judicial figure is more appropriate than a medical, theological or, perish the thought, political figure to make judgments of this sort. With that, and with appreciation of those who have struggled with these questions and continue to do so, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment. Amendment 66 withdrawn. Amendment 66A Moved by