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Assisted Dying

Absolutely. In many ways, the case demonstrates some of the difficulties that we face in trying to frame a law that will cover all the cases that we would wish to cover, while ensuring that individuals have the right to die or to go through an assisted-dying process. What worried me most about the case was the lack of common sense shown by the police. The reality of the situation—this may sound rather hypocritical—is that the police must take a common-sense approach. As someone who believes in a higher being—unlike the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon—I think that perhaps the judge in these ethical and moral matters should not be on this planet but elsewhere. I was encouraged by the Minister’s comment that there had been zero prosecutions in the nearly 50 years since the Suicide Act 1961. [Hon. Members: ““Imprisonment.””] No imprisonment, although there may have been prosecution and some investigation. We need to take a much more common-sense approach to these desperately difficult ethical matters. I am glad that we are having this debate. I know that many hon. Members wish to speak, and I hope that as many people as possible will be able to put their viewpoints across in the course of the debate. We will obviously be interested to hear some of the Government’s thinking about how this element of the law should be changed, if at all.