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19 September 2025 / William Raven
Issue: 8131 / Categories: Opinion , Human rights , Health
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Lord Neuberger on assisted dying

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The judge & former president of the Supreme Court talks to William Raven about his views on the Terminally Ill Adults Bill

Lord Neuberger, by his own admission, has ‘for many years been interested in the topic of assisted dying’. Liberalising the law on assisted dying is a question he has often considered—as a law lord in R (on the application of Purdy) v DPP [2009] UKHL 45, [2009] 4 All ER 1147, and in the Supreme Court in R (on the application of Nicklinson) v Ministry of Justice [2014] UKSC 38, [2014] 3 All ER 843. When we met on a late-June morning, a few days after the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed its third reading in the House of Commons, it was an issue I was keen to raise. 

Liberalising the law

‘For a long time, I’ve been in favour of liberalising the law,’ Lord Neuberger said. ‘I don’t go to the House of Lords very often, but [in 2021] there was a motion about

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