Speeches by Leadbeater.

“That is really helpful. Dr Mullock, do you want to add anything? Dr Mullock: I agree with most of the things that I am aware of that Professor Esmail just talked about. I would add that at the moment, people go sooner than they would wish to die because they have to go to Switzerland while they are still well enough to…”

“Q Thank you so much for giving evidence this afternoon. Perhaps I can provide a bit of reassurance, Baroness Falkner, on a couple of issues. The first thing I would say in terms of the Bill—”

“It will be a question. The Bill is very clear, in clause 2(3), that disabled people are not within its scope, but I would be really interested to know if there is anything you think we could add to make that clearer—I put that to Fazilet, too—because I want to be really clear about that, and I want to provide any reass…”

“Q Baroness Falkner, do you want to come in on the point about how we could make the Bill more robust in terms of those protections? Baroness Falkner: Can I just pick up the point about section 6 of the Equality Act 2010? That is clear, but it was not written with the intention of applying in these circumstances; it is …”

“Q You raise a really important point. There is a range of different views within the disabled community, and we heard some of them this morning. A professor of disability rights made the point that disabled people also do not want to be excluded from the Bill, because if you have a terminal illness and you are disabled…”

“Thank you.”

“On a point of order, Mr Dowd. I am slightly concerned that we are having a conversation about the process, rather than about the actual Bill. I am not sure whether that is in scope of the work of the Committee.”

“Q Thank you, witnesses, for joining us this afternoon. The good news for us all, on the palliative care conversation, is that we have in the room the Minister responsible for palliative care, who has heard those arguments loud and clear. Indeed, Second Reading showed that there is a huge amount of good will in the Hous…”

“Q Dr Hussain, I hear your concerns about the broader impact on society, and certainly in terms of ethnic minorities. Have you seen any evidence that that is an issue in other jurisdictions? The evidence we have heard is that people from ethnic minorities are underrepresented in assisted dying statistics, meaning that p…”

“Q On that point, do you think there could be better training around coercion?”

“Sorry. Dr Hussain: I really liked what you said yesterday; we need gold standard training. The thought yesterday about what happens with capacity made me think straight away about cases in the last few months where we, as a palliative care team, thought that someone had capacity, and the other team did not. That happen…”

“Q Thank you for joining us this morning. I am interested in following up on what Dr Mewett said about the relationship with palliative care, which has an important role to play in end of life treatment. What is the relationship between assisted dying and the palliative care world like? Also, I would like to hear a bit …”

“Q Was it a multidisciplinary board that Dr McLaren set up to look at the safety and quality of voluntary assisted dying? Dr McLaren: This was born out of when we started as a Victorian group. We were very individual and we interpreted the law in our own ways. We complied with it as best we could, but we did not have a …”

“Q Thank you for coming to give evidence this morning—it is incredibly helpful. I am going to come back to clause 2 of the Bill, which concerns the definition of terminal illness. I am very clear on who the Bill is aimed at helping and who it is not aimed at involving. The definition says that the person has to have “an…”

“But those deaths do exist.”

“Does anybody else want to comment? Dr Cox? Dr Cox: I am happy to. Of course we do not want people to have to make that choice. I will refer to everything I have said before: are they are making a real choice, and have they had access to really excellent palliative care? I also make a brief point about the impact of the…”

“Q I have a very quick one. You talked about inequality in healthcare and in systems. What I would like to come back to is the status quo. What are your comments on the inequality that exists currently, where assisted dying is available to people who have got the money to go to Switzerland, or another jurisdiction, and …”

“Can I ask a quick follow-up, Chair?”

“Q Goodness me, there is a lot to cover. To go back to your point, Mr Sanderson, it is important to acknowledge the fantastic work that palliative care professionals do. Indeed, it is extremely important that we are having these conversations, which is why we gave extra time to this panel of witnesses. Dr Cox, on your p…”

“Yes. It sounds as though you are saying that your professionals are trained to have those conversations, which is very reassuring. Glyn, do you want to add anything? Glyn Berry: Just to say that I absolutely agree with Professor Ranger. My experience of working with palliative nurses, and nurses in general, is long, an…”