Speeches by Abbott.

“Q4. The Ipswich northern bypass is a project of local, regional and national importance, and on which the future of our town and county hinges. However, this critical project has been gathering dust for years, repeatedly blocked by people who refuse to act in our long-term interests. The Prime Minister has set out how …”

“Q I sympathise totally with what you are saying about palliative care, but the principle of assisted dying is the main thrust of what we are debating. Will the principle of assisted dying, should it be introduced, fundamentally change, positively or negatively, many of the things that you have been describing? Sam Roys…”

“Q Sorry, Mr Royston, but I am coming back to you with a similar question. I do not think anyone on the Committee or, as Mr Porter mentioned, anyone who took part in our recent debate would disagree about the pretty awful state of palliative care at the moment. You are absolutely right to mention poverty and its impact …”

“Q I have a question for Mr Amin. You worked on the judicial review of Noel Conway in 2018. For the benefit of the Committee and those watching, Mr Conway had terminal motor neurone disease and he looked to bring a judicial review in order to have the option of assisted death, when he was in the final six months of his …”

“Q Sure. Let us phrase it in a different way today. Would you be able to expand on your thinking there? Sir Nicholas Mostyn: Parkinson’s is such a complex condition. The medically qualified amongst you will know this—there are so many symptoms, and with the rate of development and the direction of travel, it is an enorm…”

“Sorry. I was trying to make a point—”

“Yes, so the direct comparison is not necessarily relevant. Is that correct?”

“Q Thank you, Professor Whitty and Duncan, for being with us this morning. Professor Whitty, in October you and a number of chief medical officers published an advice note to doctors about a range of guidance on this issue. In it, you said that a couple of things are “unanimous” for medical professionals. I am focusing …”

“Q This might sound like playing devil’s advocate, and I fully appreciate that you do not want to reduce this to a tick-box exercise, as you described it. Some might argue that the risk of what you describe is that it creates a lottery, because you would be relying on doctors to use their personal judgment as to when to…”

“Q My question, which relates to some of the points made earlier, is for Glyn Berry. Your organisation has recommended a new role: the approved palliative care professional. To go into the detail a bit more, you make a number of recommendations on what that role would include, such as ensuring that the person has the me…”

“Q Dr Cox, may I follow up on one of the things you said earlier? Forgive me if I have misunderstood; I want to be clear. Earlier, I think you said that in the countries that do not have assisted dying, the state of palliative care has improved more quickly than in countries that do. Is that a fair representation of wha…”

“Q Sure. That is a really fair argument. Again, what I am driving towards is the point you were trying to make earlier, which is—I think this is fair to say—that countries that do not implement assisted dying improve their palliative care system. Clearly, that did not happen in the UK, so my guess is that that is not di…”

“Q Sir Nicholas, I am going to paraphrase a little bit, but you said people with Parkinson’s will never get a terminal diagnosis, so this Bill is no use to you at all—I think you used stronger language than that when you made your original statement. Sir Nicholas Mostyn: I was sort of taken by surprise when she asked th…”

“Q I will keep my question quite short. Is there anything about the law in either of your jurisdictions where you think there could be improvement, and that we can learn from in drafting our legislation here? Dr Kaan: The thing I have been reading about that is concerning to me is the court approval that you seem to hav…”

“Q The whole panel has painted—and we have heard this previously—a pretty bleak picture of the state of palliative care in the UK. Would you say that it was better or worse than it was, say, 10 years ago? Dr Cox: I suppose it depends who you are. If you live in one of the postcodes where you cannot get palliative care, …”

“Q I guess what I am driving towards is that simply not having assisted dying is not necessarily causation for improvement in palliative care. In this country, for example, we have not seen palliative care improve from where it was 10 years ago, the last time this debate came to Parliament. Dr Cox: The position we would…”

“Q In your view, and that of the rest of the panel, is there a way to legislate to include them? Sir Nicholas Mostyn: It has been suggested that I want to expand the definition of terminal illness. I do not want to expand it. I want to redefine it so that it is more appropriately focused, in my opinion, on what this Bil…”

“Yes, those with such conditions. Are they left out of this debate? Sir Nicholas Mostyn: They are.”

“Q In your view—I think you kind of said it before, and I would hate to put words in your mouth—are you saying that Parkinson’s sufferers and other similar— Sir Nicholas Mostyn: Neurodegenerative.”

“Thank you, Dr Huq, for your excellent chairship, which has allowed everybody to contribute. This is a national issue, but SEND services in Ipswich and Suffolk have been in a desperate state for more than a decade. Like everywhere else, we need specialist places and specialist professionals. We welcome the massive boost…”