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Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill: Select Committee Report

My Lords, my views are not the same as those of the noble Lord, Lord Patten. The substance of the argument was made in the debate on 6 June 2003, to which I made a brief contribution. I do not believe that that substance has been diluted by the Select Committee report, which was so well and so fairly chaired by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay of Clashfern. In the short time that I have, I shall inform the House about a debate on a report on this subject held in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on 27 April. I shall use the words of others to express my opinion. The Council of Europe report was presented by a Swiss called Dick Marty. It did not recommend euthanasia, but recommended that in all member states a debate should be opened to consider how best to approach a very real, deep problem, which at the moment in most countries is unregulated or covered up. The rapporteur said that he was especially pleased that his report was supported by the international committee of nursing staff in the European Union. First, I quote my liberal Dutch colleague, Dick Dees. He said:"““There are many arguments to support Mr Marty’s report and recommendations. Evidence-based scientific studies prove that euthanasia and other end-of-life decisions are practised in many, if not all, countries. In The Lancet, a study of the position in six European countries confirms that doctors’ assistance to patients at the end of life is practised in all of them, including those where it is currently illegal. One of the study’s most important conclusions is that a natural dying process occurs in only one third of all death cases. The proportion of deaths that were preceded by medical end-of-life decisions ranged between 23 per cent in Italy to 51 per cent in Switzerland. A scientific study in Australia shows the same picture as Europe””." Secondly, I should like to quote another Dutchman—this time not a liberal—Erik Jurgens.