Speeches by Kruger.

“I remember the hon. Lady’s very powerful speech on Second Reading and I fully recognise that, which is why I said that I recognise that including suffering would be problematic. I understand her point about pain as well. I think we need belt and braces. If we are going to do this, we should have strict restrictions on …”

“I am very conscious that people feel like a burden at the end of their life. It is quite right that at the moment the system says, “No, you are not. You have value. You might feel a burden, but we want to sustain your life until its natural end. If you want to withdraw or decline treatment, that is your autonomous choi…”

“We want to ensure that people decide for their own sake—I will give way in a moment; this is a good opportunity to make this point. The hon. Member for Ashford referred to the Mental Capacity Act, which we have retained as the basis of the capacity test. The Bill would introduce a version of the best interests consider…”

“That is fair enough. The amendment seeks to insist that people will have an assisted death for their own sake. What we are trying to exclude is the opposite of that—that they are doing it for others. The principal reason why people want an assisted death, if they are not being coerced—which we have already sought to ex…”

“The purpose of the amendments, and the reason why I am supporting them, is that they make the Bill honest. They will make the Bill do what the public think it does and is the reason why so many people around the country and in Parliament have supported it: because they understand it to be for exactly the purpose specif…”

“I am sorry to push my right hon. Friend further but to reiterate my point, we are not talking about external coercion. We are talking about the explicit motivation of somebody with a settled and informed wish that they want to die to save their family the cost of their care. My understanding is that the Bill would allo…”

“Obviously, we do not want people gaming the system, but I would rather that there were a system, even if it were gamed, than to have no safeguards whatever—which, I am afraid to say, is the case with this Bill. The only coercion that the doctor is looking for is coercion from other people; we do not think that that bar…”

“Will my right hon. Friend explain what the doctor would do if he or she did not think that there was an appropriate reason to approve the death? The Bill simply requires there to be a settled and informed view. As the hon. Member for Richmond Park says, the motivation might be that the person wanted to save their child…”

“My right hon. Friend says that the primary purpose is control, and that is certainly the argument made by some of the most passionate advocates of this sort of legislation. However, does he recognise that, in the majority of cases, in jurisdictions where this is legal, being a burden is a primary cause for people to se…”

“I am interested in what my hon. Friend said about not having had conversations with the Government or the promoter about the details of these amendments. I could understand that if this was purely a private Member’s Bill, but the fact is that the Government clearly are involved; we have heard it said today very clearly…”

“Okay. I am sorry to hear that.”

“On a point of order, Mrs Harris. The Minister gave a brilliant speech in support of the Bill as it stands, so I simply do not understand how, having explained so clearly why she believes that the amendment is inappropriate, she can claim to have a neutral position on it. This is not in any way personal; she made a very…”

“I think the Minister just suggested that if we were to amend the Bill, there would be some kind of unfortunate knock-on effect with other legislation, which would thereby be weakened. I hope the argument being made is not that we should leave this Bill weaker in order to protect other legislation. We need to get this r…”

“Will the Minister give way?”

“At the risk of debating an amendment that has not even been tabled yet and that will come later in the Bill—I wish we were able to see it—the hon. Lady is absolutely right: I do indeed believe it would be very helpful to have as many professional eyes on each case as possible, so I welcome the suggestion of more expert…”

“I emphasise that the basis of the Bill, despite what many campaigners might want, is not one of total autonomy. The Bill requires us to have some responsibility towards the applicant, and not simply to say “Do you want it? You can have it.” There are already provisions in the Bill that put an obligation on the assessin…”

“I am not sure that we are going to satisfy each other on this point. A lot of the evidence that we have heard conclusively asserts that there is a widespread problem of families applying—and I do use these terms fairly interchangeably—undue influence, encouragement and manipulation. Pressure and coercion form a subset …”

“The value of the word “encouragement” is that it is broader than simply “pressure” or “coercion”. In response to the points made by the hon. Members for Spen Valley and for Rother Valley, the purpose of these amendments is not to criminalise the pressure—there are other clauses that address that question—but to ensure …”

“We are suggesting that an application in which the applicant has been encouraged—or coerced, unduly influenced or manipulated—would not be acceptable. The assessing doctor must confirm that there has been no encouragement. That is the purpose of the amendment. I hope that satisfies.”

“On the point about encouragement, I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Reigate for reminding me that her new clause 5 specifies a definition of encouragement: “an act capable of encouraging suicide which would constitute an offence under section 2” of the Suicide Act. Encouragement is encouragement—the term e…”