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Assisted Dying

My Lords, the last time that there was a serious parliamentary investigation into assisted dying, it was published in the 2005 Select Committee report of this House, which unanimously recommended the referral of the issue to Committee for detailed debate. That detailed debate was prevented by a cunning tactical ploy by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile. It astonishes me that he refers with such confidence to that Select Committee because, as it happens, I have established that although no vote was taken in the committee, a majority of seven of its 13 members ended up by supporting assisted dying. Surely, against that background, the 80 per cent of society in our democracy who consistently support assisted dying are entitled to the inquiry proposed by my noble friend Lord Warner, at which the issue can be calmly and objectively considered, based on research and evidence, rather than on conjecture and speculation about what might happen by those who hope that it will not.