00:00And it was a beautiful house, there was a playing field right opposite, where I used
00:21to run around and kick a ball, and I have a lot of happy memories.
00:26If the bill had been in place when my father died, he could have had a much safer, kinder,
00:33more compassionate death, certainly. He could have discussed his decision with his family
00:41members, instead of making a decision that was dangerous, unsafe and isolating by himself.
00:48And his death would have been something that we could have processed emotionally and psychologically
00:57together, rather than have to deal with what was a car crash of a death.
01:04The proposed legislation would assess coercion up front, rather than the police having to
01:11sift through the wreckage of someone's death after the fact.
01:16So, while I completely understand that a bill of this magnitude needs to be scrutinised
01:25and the detail really examined carefully, the scaremongering and what-about-ery on the
01:34opponent's side, I think really is to a degree distracting from the main issues.
01:43It says in the bill that we must ensure that this is voluntary. But I, as a doctor, cannot
02:05determine coercion. I have no legal training whatsoever. I am not a lawyer or a solicitor.
02:11And in the short time in which doctors would assess someone, we couldn't possibly determine
02:16whether this was voluntary or not. I think my biggest fear, there is some pessimism,
02:21and that's because this has been rushed through. We have a brand new government with
02:25a lot of new MPs that are just getting used to their job and representing their constituency.
02:30We've had less than three weeks to examine the content of the bill, with no exploration
02:35of actually the consequences of it. And there are consequences, including opening the door
02:40to euthanasia.
02:42We do sit down and very carefully explore the reasons that they're feeling like that.
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