Speeches by Kruger.

“I am grateful, Mr Dowd. I recognise the force of what the hon. Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge is saying. To be clear, the amendments that I am supporting would not deny disabled people any of the other rights that are being awarded in the Bill. She is absolutely right that a disabled person with a terminal illne…”

“I am delighted to hear it. I am grateful to the hon. Lady and to other hon. Members who have indicated their sympathy for the amendment. I look forward to the Division and to the Minister’s decision. May I follow up on a point made by the hon. Member for Bradford West? I do not know whether the hon. Member for Spen Val…”

“I was going to remind the Minister that he is, in his strange Jekyll and Hyde personality, speaking as a Minister but voting as a Member of Parliament, so if he has given the Government’s view that my amendment is not acceptable, but he personally thinks that it is, I hope that he will vote for it.”

“I am grateful for that clarification, but it rather concerns me. Can the Minister elucidate exactly which conditions might fall into the category of medical condition that would not be captured by “illness” or “disease”? Does he accept the point that I made in my speech—that the interpretation of the law by the court w…”

“I just wanted the hon. Gentleman to comment on the reality in our NHS at the moment that people are described as terminally ill with anorexia. They are given the label of being terminally ill and put on palliative care pathways because it is assumed that their condition is not reversible. Doctors today, in this country…”

“I am trying to ensure that there will be a sufficiently broad scope that doctors must be obliged to check that there has been no undue influence, pressure or encouragement. An example would be an elderly person who has been actively encouraged: it has been suggested in all love, and possibly with perfectly decent motiv…”

“This morning, we adjourned in the middle of an intervention. I do not know whether the hon. Member for Banbury wants to resume it.”

“This is my last intervention, I promise. I want to hear the hon. Lady confirm that under the Bill as currently drafted, after all these conversations have taken place, as long as the doctor cannot find evidence of coercion, they would be obliged to approve the assisted death, as would the judge and the judicial panel. …”

“But if the doctor concluded that they were doing it because they felt they were a burden, they would still be able to get the assisted death under the hon. Lady’s Bill. The only question is whether they have capacity. If they have been judged to have capacity, choosing to have the assisted death in order to save their …”

“Would the hon. Lady be content if somebody who had capacity chose an assisted death for the purpose of saving their family money?”

“That is a fair point. I do not propose to push the amendment to a vote, but I hope that the point has landed sufficiently. There is a genuine concern that people will, as they do in other countries, with increasing regularity and in concerning numbers, seek to have an assisted death not with their own personal interest…”

“That is absolutely right. It is a very depressing fact that it seems to be the sentiment of the Committee that we should allow people to request and receive an assisted death for the purpose of saving their relatives money. That does seem to be what people are saying.”

“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman because he highlights the absolute novelty of this law. We are proposing to do something completely unprecedented. As hon. Members have tried to argue over the last two days, it takes us into extremely dangerous waters with respect to the most vulnerable, so what we are trying to do,…”

“That is exactly my point. There are those who think that it should be just for people facing terrible pain at the end of life, but that is not what the Bill does, and it is not what the hon. Gentleman says it should do. He would like there to be a Bill that says simply, “If you want to take your own life with the help …”

“Well, perhaps my hon. Friend wants to come up with a further amendment, to strengthen it even more and say that we should restrict it only to agony or extreme pain. No, I am trying to be reasonable and say that the case made for the Bill, in public and I think in the public mind, is that its beneficiaries will be those…”

“I totally acknowledge that. I fully recognise that, as I said, morphine allergy does indeed exist, but I am told that it is very rare. I hope that the hon. Lady’s relative will confirm that there are other things that can be done for people who suffer from pain if morphine is not appropriate. I suppose that is the poin…”

“I always worry when the doctor is providing assistance. [Laughter.] No, I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for trying to get me back on track. We hear about morphine allergy, and I recognise that apparently it does exist, albeit very rarely. Patients with a morphine allergy can still receive opioid analgesics—there ar…”

“The amendment is clear that the primary purpose should be to avoid physical pain. That needs no further clarification. Let me turn to the discussion of pain. As I have said, the amendment would make the Bill honest and make it do what most people out there want it do. It would also have the great benefit, in my view at…”

“I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman.”

“The amendment would require people to request an assisted death for the purpose of avoiding pain. If the purpose is to avoid the pain of the death that the hon. Gentleman described, they would qualify under the amendment. I want to push back slightly. I recognise that he is a doctor and I am not, but the case that was …”