Clause 4
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
10:15 am
John Pugh (Shadow Minister, Health; Southport, Liberal Democrat)
The hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham has made his statement defending the amendment—and I think it quite a legitimate statement—that someone who is suicidal necessarily has impaired judgment. I think that that is more or less what he said. I understand that Earl Howe in the other place has said the converse: that someone is not necessarily mentally impaired if they are suicidal. Have we not hit on a fundamental difficulty here, namely, that people who support this amendment derive different consequences from it? Before going any further, ought we not to clarify its true intended consequences?