argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Civil Rights
Deborah Bull (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, in the three short years in which I have had the privilege to sit in your Lordships’ House, this Chamber has debated many once-in-a-lifetime issues, and yet, in that time, no topic has provoked this level of public engagement. All noble Lords will have the same mail bag and, while others may have heard more of one view than the other, mine came equally from those for and against. They all shared passionate and well-argued articulations of their different positions, from either side of an ethical, medical, religious or ideological divide. They all began with the same request: please attend and speak in this debate. And so I rise briefly today to make my own plea for the space in the middle; the space in which radically different views can be safely expressed and respectfully heard. This week, preserving that space feels more important than ever The rise of political polarisation in large democracies is well documented. But here in the UK, we are becoming riven by polarisation based on issues, with groups coalescing not around political ideologies but around social, environmental or cultural concerns: climate, vaccinations and, perhaps, the one we debate today. When those positions become a core part of our identity, dialogue across the divide becomes ever harder. Research suggests that bringing the public closer to political and cultural debates will help guard against further polarisation, but it comes with a warning that much depends on how those debates are conducted and that leaders have a duty to cool things down rather than raise temperatures higher Today we debate a question to which there is no right or wrong answer. It is a question the House has debated before and one it may well debate again, as future generations attempt, like us, to take a balanced view. We will all have concerns about this Bill: some will be concerned to dismiss it, some to get its provisions absolutely right, and some to identify where they stand on this most challenging issue. But to stifle debate would be to engage in the kind of cancel culture that we will, I am sure, decry when we come to discuss free speech in universities or online I share the hope of the most reverend Primate that there will be no votes today to close down this Bill before it runs its legitimate course or, to quote the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, to "kill it by misdescription". To do so would go against the strongly expressed desire of all those people, for and against, who put pen to paper to ask that their voices be heard.
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Mixed Topics
Donald Curry (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I, too, am deeply concerned about this Bill and oppose it. Let me give yet another very personal insight into why I am concerned. Eight years ago, my wife and I held the hands of our daughter, aged 42, who had a learning disability, while she passed from time into eternity. She breathed her last while we held her hands. It was a very emotional and precious moment for us. It was not an experience that one ever envisages when bringing a child into the world. Six years before that, she was very ill with pneumonia and other complications and was not expected to survive. We sat with her day and night as she struggled and battled to live. The medical staff had done what they could. Nothing more could be done. It was extremely distressing and we were torn between wishing for her to pull through and thinking that perhaps the best solution might be for her to slip quietly away so that her pain and suffering could be over If someone at that time had offered an assisted dying—assisted suicide—option, I firmly believe that in our heightened emotional state, not thinking rationally, we may have been tempted to agree to her premature death. Had we done that, it would have troubled us for the rest of our lives Remarkably, she pulled through. It was a long, hard slog, but she enriched our lives for another six years, enjoyed her own life and continued to influence hundreds of people during that time. What a tragedy it would have been had her life been cut short six years too early. That is exactly what will happen if this Bill is supported. There will be a few in the first year and a few hundred in future years who feel that they have become a burden on their families and society and will be killed off prematurely because it will become the simple, easy option I fear that this country will become a society that terminates the lives of its old people and its sick and disabled people because they fear they are being a burden to their loved ones and because of the time and the cost of their care. I have the same letter that the noble Lord, Lord Sheikh, referred to, where a doctor wrote very eloquently. I want to repeat that phrase: "Doctors are very poor at predicting when people will die." We live in an imperfect, fallen world. Support for this Bill will not make it perfect. In closing, I challenge the interpretation of theology given by the noble Lord, Lord Vinson. Christ’s death was not assisted. He voluntarily offered up his life and it was the purpose for which he came.
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Mixed Topics
Sally Greengross (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I am very lucky to have the opportunity to speak today in favour of the Assisted Dying Bill introduced by the noble Baroness, Lady Meacher. In fact, I am very lucky to still be alive at all. Last October, I was at stage 3 cancer, with a number of secondary tumours which had spread throughout my body. I went through six months of intense chemotherapy, which ended in April this year. I am still recovering from this treatment, and while some days I am fine, others I find that I am very tired and struggle to get through the day My reason for wanting this legislation is to ensure that everyone is protected—those who want to end their life and those who do not. The Bill is not just about freedom to choose. In fact, it would allow openness and, most importantly, protection for us all. At present there is the risk of poor treatment or a painful death due to neglect. Further, those wishing to help a loved one are fearful of prosecution so may not provide the pain relief that could shorten life, even if it reduces someone’s suffering As we know, many countries have now changed the law to allow assisted dying, most recently New Zealand. In 2020, people in that country—which has a philosophy very similar to our own—voted in a referendum to change the law, after many years of their Parliament ignoring public opinion on this issue and refusing to legalise assisted dying. In the UK, we know that if a referendum was held on assisted dying it would pass, with many reputable opinion polls taken over the last decade showing support for this change in the law. Given this, instead of having a referendum where we know what the result would be, your Lordships’ House should support this Bill Finally, I very much respect the rights of people with religious and spiritual beliefs who see life as sacred, and in no way wish to infringe on those beliefs. If someone wants to live as long as possible due to their faith, their rights are protected by the Bill. All I ask is that my wish for an assisted death if I do need it would also be respected—something that the Bill would allow. That is why I very much support it, and I hope other Members will as well.
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Civil Rights
David Neuberger (Crossbench, Unknown): I thank the noble Baroness for that introduction. Like the noble and learned Lord, Lord Mance, I was one of the judges in the Supreme Court Nicklinson case. The more I considered the extensive facts and the arguments, the clearer it became to me as judge that it was inappropriate, at least at that stage, for the courts to seek to force Parliament to change the law on assisted suicide and the clearer it became to me as citizen that Parliament should change the law There are many important human rights but, in the end, they can all be encapsulated in a single, overriding right which has been referred to more than once today: the right to personal autonomy. Personal autonomy has no more important aspect than the right to control your very existence. It is your life to deal with as you see fit. If you want to end your life, you are entitled to do so, and if you have a fundamental right to end your life, you must require very powerful reasons why you should be denied assistance if you need to exercise that right and cannot do it without assistance. When you hear of heartrending experiences, such as those of the noble Baroness, Lady Symons, and the noble Lord, Lord Ramsbotham, the principal justification for the right to be assisted if you wish to kill yourself is reinforced by considerations of humanity The case for the Bill is also supported by the way that we permit richer people who can afford it to be taken abroad to achieve an assisted death. It is supported by the fact that we freely allow people to refuse treatment. It is supported by the way in which we deal with suffering animals, and by the excellent point made by the noble Baroness, Lady Davidson, about medical intervention and the start of life. It is also supported by the public The contrary argument, and the only one, I have to say, that resonates with me, is the risk of abuse. All freedoms can be abused, and we deal with that not by removing the freedoms but by legislating against the abuse. The Bill provides for full protection and if, as some have suggested, it is not full enough or could be improved, the Bill can be amended; it should not be ended. The fact that there will be occasional abuses, as there always are in a free society, is far outweighed by the enormous amount of suffering, relatively speaking, that will be ended if the Bill becomes law I will end with two brief points. First, I do not read Clause 4(4)(c) as permitting a third party to administer the killing medicine. If it does so provide, it can be amended. Finally, there has been a suggestion that this is inappropriate for judges. Three former senior judges, including myself, have so far spoken in this debate and supported the Bill, which speaks for itself. The noble Lord, Lord Wilson, a highly experienced family judge, supported the involvement of judges in our judgment in the Nicklinson case. Judges are called as a matter of principle and practice to decide on difficult, sensitive cases. It is fitting that they should be involved in this exercise. I support the Bill.
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Civil Rights
Robert Henry Alexander Eames (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, this has been one of those occasions in the life of the House where there is satisfaction for all of us that we are concentrating on issues that really matter. This afternoon, listening to the contributions of my colleagues, and thinking back over 58 years of my life as a priest, a bishop and then an archbishop, I have been able to put names on almost all the human stories I have heard from noble Lords’ lips. That has not helped me in reaching a decision as to what I should say. In fact, it has made it more difficult, because I can see both sides of the argument. I want to share with my—if I may dare say it, from the disestablished Church of Ireland—episcopal colleagues, that I sense I know exactly what their problem is, and I am going to add to it What we are debating today is, on the surface of it, the right thing to do. We are moving humanity forward; we are giving people the opportunity to die with a new sense of dignity. How often in the dark hours sitting beside a bedside have I thought of those issues and have prayed that a person’s suffering would cease—that somehow, in my faith, the Almighty would receive them out of their pain But when I look at the Bill, so wonderfully introduced and supported by many who have thought deeply about it, I question whether the safeguards have been sufficiently analysed. A young doctor of my acquaintance said to me the other day, "Please, please, please get greater safeguards written into this legislation"—not that he was against some progress in healing the desperate burdens that have been described this afternoon. No, he wants to move forward, but he feels the vulnerability of so much that sounds well on the surface but, when looked at closely, does not give him safety or a guarantee. For that reason, I find it hard to support this legislation.
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Mixed Topics
Colin MacKenzie Low (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, in the six years since assisted dying was last debated in Parliament, lawmakers around the world, including in five Australian states and New Zealand, have recognised that banning assisted dying is both dangerous and cruel. In jurisdictions such as Victoria in Australia, parliamentarians have worked with disability rights campaigners to craft laws that work for all citizens, balancing choice and protection for vulnerable people. We can and should do the same here. A polarised debate will achieve neither choice for dying people nor protection for the vulnerable There is a strong moral and ethical case for supporting the Bill, but there is also a logical one. Opposing assisted dying because of speculative concerns about how safe or unsafe it might be is hypocritical when we look at the lack of protections around current end-of-life choices. We are told that the licensing of assisted dying is a particular threat to disabled people, but there is far more potential for abuse and harm towards disabled people under current arrangements than there would be a under a robust assisted dying law—for example, through outsourcing the problem to Dignitas, or doctors making end-of-life decisions without robust safeguards, transparency or oversight As a disabled person, I would personally feel greatly reassured to know that, should I be diagnosed with a terminal illness, I would be able to consider the option of an assisted death. This knowledge would increase my peace of mind—and this is surely something we would all want. A recent survey of 140 disability rights organisations in the UK indicated that only 4% explicitly opposed assisted dying laws. Polling has shown that 86% of people living with a disability support assisted dying as a choice for terminally ill people. It is therefore wrong to oppose assisted dying laws on the ground that people with disabilities and disability rights organisations oppose them. Not only is this incorrect, but it fails to take seriously the full range of opinion among disabled people across society.
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Mixed Topics
Gisela Stuart (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, Kierkegaard tells us that life is lived forwards but understood backwards. What we do today, sometimes with the very best intentions, and what we quite rightly today think is modest and merely a step towards relieving suffering, may in time lay the foundations for things that we neither intended nor wished to happen I accept that facts about the future are hard to come by, but I do know one thing for certain: just as today is imperfect, just as today’s rules have been laid down and are not being followed, and just as today we find good people and bad people, so tomorrow there will be good people and bad people. There will be regulations that we thought were absolutely firm that are not followed, and there will be problems. The notion that we can pass a modest piece of legislation to deliver us the perfect future is flawed by the simple fact that the future will be just as flawed as today The way we approach death is deeply problematic. We try to deny it; we have hospitalised it; we try to manage it. This leaves a lot to be desired, but this Bill is not the answer to deal with those problems. I do not think that we have asked ourselves the right question, and therefore we have not come up with the right solution. We seem to assume that we can take the pain of grief out of the process of death. Our family members will feel guilty and aggrieved, whether they helped us in our last days or whether they did not. They may feel that they have not done something which they might have done. Whatever the situation, this will not take the pain out. I must say something specific about this House. We are people who value choice and autonomy because we are a collection of people who, for most of our lives, have had choices and autonomy. We cannot assume that what we think is right for us and so wonderful and admirable will happen for everyone else on their death. The duty to be inclusive and to speak not just for ourselves, or on what we want for ourselves, is at the bottom of why we need to reflect on this legislation Some years ago, I asked an eminent heart surgeon what makes the difference between a good surgeon and a brilliant one. He said, "To know when not to do something". This House has a duty: just because we could do something, does not mean that we need to; we should reflect on that. Is this Bill the answer? Will it set us on the road to the most unknown journey—the end of our life? The road to death is the one we know so little about and all fear. We all hope that it will just happen peacefully, quietly and without doubt. But it does not and, whether this Bill is passed or not, it still will not. I want us to reflect on what it is that we are afraid of and what we can resolve, and whether this Bill answers those two deep, fundamental questions. I do not think that it does.
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Civil Rights
Indarjit Singh (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, today we live in an increasingly selfish and uncaring society, in which euphemisms such as "assisted dying" for "assisted suicide" and, unbelievably, "compassion" have all been used to justify a Bill that I believe demeans society and pressurises the vulnerable to take their own lives The moral slide ahead is clearly visible. In the Netherlands, assisted death is routinely extended to include the disabled, those with chronic, non-terminal conditions and those with mental health problems such as dementia and depression. The suffering of the vulnerable is made worse by those close, making it obvious that their care is an unwanted chore, particularly by some who stand to inherit property or assets. That was highlighted by the noble Lord, Lord Tebbit, who has shown years of loving care and compassion to his injured and disabled wife. During the debate on the 2013 Bill of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, the noble Lord, Lord Tebbit, said that legislating for assisted suicide "creates too much financial incentive for the taking of life."—[Official Report, 18/7/14; col. 789.] Such pressures are difficult to pick up by doctors and judges We are all aware of the problem of climate change, but much less aware of a deteriorating moral climate—a growing selfishness seen in daily news of violence against the weak and vulnerable. Assisting in the killing of our fellow human beings has been condemned by leaders of all our major faiths, including, as we have heard, the most reverend Primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Statistics remind us that it is not physical pain but a feeling of being unwanted and a burden on others that leads to mental suffering and a wish to die. We have heard conflicting stories about the different views of religions. In the story of the good Samaritan, Jesus Christ reminds us of our common responsibility to help in alleviating the suffering of our fellow beings. In Sikhism, the young Guru Nanak spent money given by his father for investment on food for the starving. Loving care for others, even to the enemy in battle, is central to Sikh teaching Finally, I mention the misuse of the word compassion —unbelievably, used to advance the Bill. The literal meaning of "compassion" is to show in loving care that we understand and share in another’s suffering. True compassion not only makes life meaningful for both giver and recipient but, importantly, also nudges society as a whole in a more positive ethical direction. It is for these reasons that I oppose the Bill.
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Other
Molly Christine Meacher (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I thank every single one of your Lordships who has spoken here today. I want to say a special thank you to the Minister. I should think he was pretty depressed when he found out that he had to reply to an extremely lengthy debate on a Friday, but I thank him for his courtesy and comments; they are most welcome. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Davidson of Lundin Links, for her formidable maiden speech. I tell you, my maiden speech was nothing like as good as that; it was really quite superb We have heard many moving and powerful speeches. Of course, I could respond to lots of the comments made by people on the other side of the argument. It would not be difficult but it would certainly take time. I am absolutely sure that your Lordships do not want me to do that this afternoon—am I right?
Assisted Dying Bill [HL] — House of Lords, 2021-10-22
Topic: Other
Molly Christine Meacher (Crossbench, Unknown): I do want to respond to the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, because I can do it quickly. The High Court has been consulted. He said that it had not; I think it is important to put that right This has been a remarkably courteous debate, despite the incredible depth of feeling, including my own, on the issues on both sides of the House. I know how strongly people feel about this issue. I am grateful for the courteousness with which everybody—I think I can say that—has expressed their opinions All I want to do is say thank you again to noble Lords.
Immigration Rules: Statements of Changes — House of Lords, 2021-05-27
Topic: Immigration
Andrew Fleming (Crossbench, Unknown): That this House regrets that the Statements of changes to the Immigration Rules (HC813, HC1043 and HC1248), published respectively on 22 October 2020, 10 December 2020 and 4 March, do not provide clear and comprehensible descriptions of the changes proposed, nor of their likely effect. Special attention drawn by the Secondary Legislation Committee, 33rd and 40th Reports, Session 2019–21.
Immigration Rules: Statements of Changes — House of Lords, 2021-05-27
Topic: Immigration
Andrew Fleming (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I am grateful to the Government for providing time for this debate, albeit a little late in the day, and to the Minister for her responses. I was, however, alarmed that she should say that immigration policy is not about numbers; they are surely a major part of all this, for reasons that were very well explained by the noble Lords, Lord Horam and Lord Hodgson. At the same time, of course, there is a clear case for immigration, expressed very eloquently by the noble Lord, Lord Bilimoria, although perhaps it was a little rosy at times Finally, for my part, my concern is not with immigration but with the scale of it. When travel, and indeed life, returns to normal, I shall be watching the numbers very carefully, whether or not they are "the language of old". I beg leave to withdraw the Motion.
Environment Bill — House of Lords, 2021-06-21
Topic: Other
Mary Watkins (Crossbench, Unknown): We will return to the noble Lord later. We now move to the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle, and after her the noble Viscount, Lord Trenchard, as the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, and the noble Lord, Lord Rooker, have withdrawn.
British Council — House of Lords, 2021-06-09
Topic: Mixed Topics
John Anderson (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, following the theme of everyone else this afternoon, how can this country be a global Britain with an insular approach? How secure is the Minister that the Treasury fully understands the strategic contribution of the British Council in establishing networks and information gathering, the cultivation of future leaders around the world, and the creating of links for trade and export promotion, thus offsetting the demoralised Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office?