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Hello, I'm Alicia McCarthy.

Thanks for downloading the yesterday in Parliament podcast for Friday the 5th of December.

At what age should people be able to ask for an assisted death?

That was the central question as peers once again debated a bill

that would allow some

terminally ill adults in England and Wales the right to request help to end their lives.

Peers have put forward more than a thousand possible changes to the terminally 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 a heartfelt appeal to peers.

I would hope that noble laws can make much greater progress today

to ensure that a wider range of important amendments

can be scrutinised in the time available.

Moving her amendments, the Labour peer Lady Berger argued 18, the Bill's current age limit

was too young. And there were already circumstances in which local authorities and others

had responsibility for youngsters up to the age of 25. She said peers had heard from experts

who thought the higher age would be safer.

In general, the brain does not finish developing until a person is in their mid-20s.

And this is particularly the case of the prefrontal cortex, which governs our decision-making

functions and our ability to think flexibly about potential outcomes.

But another Labour peer lady hater argued people in their 20s could have families and careers.

And to then say, but I'm sorry, you're 24 years of age, and you cannot be helped in your last few days or months, weeks possibly, because you're only 24.

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