Biography
Lord Birt has engaged substantively on assisted dying through seven debate speeches, predominantly focused on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill during 2025-26. His contributions have addressed key implementation concerns including palliative care provision, process timelines, risk management, and organisational structure, while drawing on comparative evidence from international jurisdictions. He has advocated for the Bill while emphasizing the importance of exploring alternatives to assisted dying and ensuring effective safeguards against coercion.
Generated from their own Hansard record, below
“…says, she has on occasions experienced the very opposite: loved ones understandably pressing someone who wants assisted dying not to embark on that course of action. Overwhelmingly, her experience is of applicants who know their own minds and are perfectly able to make a considered decision.”
Record by topic
- Palliative & end of life care125th of 56812.0
- Assisted dying78th of 37110.0
- Cancer503rd of 6222.0
- Rare diseases170th of 2022.0
What they’ve said
“The one issue that unites the whole Committee is that we have to have an effective service of palliative care in this country. The data in Australia, which varies from state to state, tells us that somewhere between 70% and 90% of people who come forward already have palliative care.”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2026-01-23 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…I reassure the noble Lord, Lord Harper, that the process can, and should, be designed not only to support assisted dying but to painstakingly explore the alternatives to assisted dying, and I did say this.”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2026-01-23 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…I approached the Australian practitioners with a completely open mind. I was in favour of assisted dying but I wanted to understand what real-life experience was like. I am very data-driven, as the noble Lord, Lord Markham, has often pointed out, and wanted to immerse myself in the Australian data.”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2026-01-23 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…Thirty countries, states or jurisdictions across the world have already introduced assisted dying. The first did so over 80 years ago; there has been a steady stream this century and, hot off the press, just two days ago, an assisted dying Bill for the Channel Island of Jersey passed its First Reading by a two to one m…”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2026-01-23 · Read on Hansard ↗
“…We know from surveys that there is overwhelming public support for assisted dying. All of us have received heart-rending letters pleading for the passage of this Bill from individuals who have had the harrowing experience of witnessing loved ones slowly dying in extreme pain or in utterly debilitating circumstances.”
Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill · 2025-09-12 · Read on Hansard ↗
Contributions reproduced under the Open Parliament Licence.