Professor Robert Winston has spoken of how his father died aged 42 after a series of innovative medical treatments to cure what began as a minor infection.
The Labour peer said he knew something of the tragedy of seeing somebody destroyed in front of you after his "wonderful, amazing, chess playing" father Laurence Winston died while he was a child.
Lord Winston said an initial innovative treatment for a minor infection was "quite inadequate" before another innovative procedure led to the development of an abscess.
He explained his father died within six months of an innovative operation that was not evidence-based, leaving his mother Ruth "desperate, destitute financially".
Lord Winston said he had endured a sleepless night before speaking against Lord Saatchi's Medical Innovation Bill, warning he was concerned the proposals would allow irresponsible innovation.
He also said he took "strong objection" to Labour saying it is the only party wanting to support and protect the NHS, telling peers: "That's nonsense."
Lord Saatchi's Bill aims to give legal protection to doctors who try out different procedures or treatments when they have exhausted other options.
The Tory peer has been campaigning for law changes to enable more innovation in treatment since his wife, novelist Josephine Hart, died from a form of ovarian cancer in 2011.
Lord Winston moved an amendment to prevent the Bill applying where responsible medical opinion considers the innovate treatment under consideration as likely to seriously or unreasonably comprise patient safety.
He told peers: "When I was not yet nine, my wonderful, amazing, chess playing, music instrument playing, polymath father died.
"He'd had a minor infection which was treated by an innovative antibiotic treatment, which was quite inadequate."
During debate on the amendment, Lord Saatchi said: "We do share the experience of witnessing a terrible event and even though that is the case I know you will share with me the view that while we share that experience in common, it hasn't led to an agreement between the two of us about the merit of this Bill."
Lord Winston said he would withdraw his amendments after further meetings were promised before the Bill reaches third reading in the new year.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article