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Assisted Dying

My Lords, before we were so rudely interrupted I was making my concluding remarks. I thank all noble Lords who have been good enough to return to listen to me for the last couple of minutes of this debate. I was talking about the benefits of inquiries and pointing out—I hope sensibly—that the legal, administrative, practical and resource implications of any change to the law are considerable. There are many different aspects to this complex issue and so the range of options that an inquiry could be asked to consider is potentially very wide. Our real worry is that however carefully we drafted the terms of reference, there could be no certainty that such an inquiry would reach a consensus or anything like it. Given the deeply divided views on this issue it would be necessary to ensure a balanced membership, which might make reaching a consensus even more difficult. I do not think that a majority of seven to six either way would constitute a good result. Indeed, the Select Committee that considered the Bill of my noble friend Lord Joffe, to which I have referred already, from March 2004 to March 2005 did not take a position either way on this central issue. The danger, although I am not saying that it is inevitable, is that we could embark on a time-consuming and potentially very expensive exercise that might not take us very much, or any, further forward. As I have said, this is clearly not an issue that can be resolved in what remains of this Parliament. I have absolutely no doubt that the debate will continue in one form or another in the next Parliament. In the mean time, I again thank my noble friend Lord Warner for raising the issue and I thank all those who have contributed so well to today’s debate. It once again reinforces the importance of Parliament in providing a forum for considering this huge ethical issue.