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Order. Order.

Hello there, I'm Alicia McCarthy,

and this is today in Parliament from BBC Radio 4 for Friday the 5th of December,

where a peer calls for a proposed new law on assisted dying

to only apply to people over 25.

Lady Berger argues 18 is just too young.

It's not only an arbitrary starting point,

but it is also contrary to the mounting evidence of when the brain is fully formed.

But other peers reckon that would mean telling youngsters with families and careers...

You cannot be helped in your last few days or months, weeks possibly, because you're only 24.

Also on this programme, high hopes for a treaty to conserve marine life in the high seas.

And the heartbreak caused by thugs firing catapults at wild birds and swans.

When one of these animals is just needlessly murdered, it's absolutely devastating.

But first, a labour peer has said the age at which it should be possible for a terminally ill person to ask for help to die

should be 25 and not 18. Lady Berger was putting forward the

proposed change to the assisted dying bill as it continued to be discussed in detail in the Lords.

The legislation, as it was originally written, would allow someone in England and Wales aged 18

or over with six months or less to live, the right to ask to end their

life. Peers have put forward more than a thousand amendments to the termly ill adults' end-of-life

bill, but so far only a handful have been discussed. At the start of the day, the government's

business manager, Lord Kennedy, made an appeal to peers.

...