Dame Esther Rantzen has welcomed plans by Labour for a vote on assisted dying that could make it legal by the end of the decade.
Dame Esther said she did not want her family’s last memories of her to be of pain and begging in vain for help to end her life, after Sir Keir Starmer said he backs a change in the law.
In a conversation with the terminally ill television presenter, Sir Keir gave a ‘commitment’ to ensure there is time for a vote in the next parliament if Labour is elected.
Sir Keir said he was ‘personally in favour of changing the law’ and claimed ‘delay just prolongs the agony’.
Dame Esther, 83, revealed at the end of last year that she has stage four lung cancer and has joined the Dignitas assisted dying clinic in Switzerland.
Since then, she has pleaded with politicians to grapple with the issue – saying ‘we live in a day and age when it’s perfectly possible to offer people a gentle, peaceful death’.
In a phone call with sir Keir that was filmed by ITV, she said: ‘What I really do not want is for my family’s last memory of me to be painful and suffering and me begging to be assisted in dying, and just having to watch me (die).’
In a conversation with Dame Esther Rantzen (pictured), the Labour leader gave a ‘commitment’ to ensure there is parliamentary time for a debate
Sir Keir said he was ‘personally in favour of changing the law’ and claimed ‘delay just prolongs the agony’
Dame Esther, 83, revealed at the end of last year that she has stage four lung cancer and has joined the Dignitas assisted dying clinic in Switzerland (pictured)
‘When you reach my advanced age of 83 and a bit you have seen people you love pass away. Some peacefully and painlessly, but not all and, unfortunately, when someone you love has a very painful death that memory obliterates the good times when you think about them.
‘You remember their suffering and I don’t want my family to have that. That would be all wrong.
‘So, as far as I’m concerned I would much rather, when I knew the end was coming, choose a painless death.’
The conversation between the Labour leader and Dame Esther will air tonight on ITV News.
Sir Keir has previously said he would be ‘open’ to making time for a Private Members’ Bill to be debated on the issue.
Sir Keir voted in favour of the last parliamentary bid to change the law in 2015, when he described the current ban as an ‘injustice’.
The vote was comfortably defeated by 330 votes to 118, but a poll of more than 10,000 people by Opinium Research for the Dignity in Dying campaign recently found that three quarters support making it lawful for terminally ill adults to access assisted dying.
He said: ‘I think we need to make time. We will make the commitment. Esther, I can give you that commitment right now.’
Pressed by ITV on whether a vote should take place in the next parliament, he replied: ‘Oh yes, definitely. I think Esther would agree with this.
‘For people who are going through this or are likely to go through it in the next few months or years, this matters hugely and delay just prolongs the agony.’
He said the debate should be ‘conducted with respect’ to ‘find the right balance in the end’.
‘I do think most people coalesce around the idea that there is a case [for assisted dying] where it is obviously compassionate, it is the settled intent of the individual, and there are safeguards with teeth to protect the vulnerable.’
While Labour is unlikely to bring forward its own legislation, Sir Keir’s signal that he would allow time for a fresh debate could encourage a backbencher to bring forward their own Bill.
A Private Members’ Bill is a public bill can be introduced by MPs or peers who are not government ministers. They are, however, unlikely to become law without Government support.
But Care Not Killing, which promotes palliative care and opposes euthanasia, questioned whether ‘killing of the terminally ill and disabled people’ was Labour’s ‘top priority’.
The conversation between the Labour leader and Dame Esther (pictured) will air tonight on ITV News
Rishi Sunak has previously indicated that he is willing to hold a vote over assisted dying, but it is not expected that he will find parliamentary time for one before the next election
Dr Gordon Macdonald, the organisation’s chief executive, said: ‘Changing the law to legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia in the UK would represent a dramatic change in how doctors and nurses treat and care for people and put the lives of the vulnerable, terminally ill and disabled people at risk.’
He said ‘ordinary voters will rightly be surprised and alarmed that the Labour Leader has decided to make this intervention’.
‘They will rightly ask, is the killing of the terminally ill and disabled people really Labour’s top legislative priority if they win the next General Election?’
Last month, a much-anticipated report on assisted dying by the Health and Social Care Committee failed to deliver any clear-cut findings or proposals.
The inquiry stopped short of calling for a House of Commons debate and instead recommended that the Government should consider how to respond if moves are made to bring assisted dying into law in parts of the UK.
Rishi Sunak has previously indicated that he is willing to hold a vote over assisted dying, but it is not expected that he will find parliamentary time for one before the next election.
He said last month: ‘What the Government has always said, and I would commit to this of course, is if parliament decided that it wanted to change the law then of course the Government would facilitate doing that in away that was legally effective.’
Assisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
In Scotland, it is not a specific criminal offence but assisting the death of someone can leave a person open to murder or other charges.
The case for changing the law: Campaigners tell their stories
Jonathan and Nicholas Dimbleby
Broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby lost his younger brother Nicholas to motor neurone disease last month aged 77.
The celebrated sculptor had wanted to choose when to die and Mr Dimbleby is now among those calling for the law to be changed.
Mr Dimbleby told The Guardian that the current rules which make assisted dying a criminal offence ‘are anachronistically cruel as capital punishment’.
Broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby (left) and his late brother the celebrated sculptor Nicholas (right)
Mr Dimbleby, a friend of King Charles, said: ‘The law should be changed so that individuals like my brother, protected by crucial legal safeguards, would have the right to die at home at a moment of their choice.’ The pair pictured here in 1994
Mr Dimbleby, a friend of King Charles, added: ‘The law should be changed so that individuals like my brother, protected by crucial legal safeguards, would have the right to die at home at a moment of their choice.’
On his brother he said: ‘He was a wonderful, strong person, mentally as well as physically, and he felt this erosion of life very deeply.
‘He showed immense courage but as the disease progressed he endured terrifying choking fits though, mercifully, his final hours were peaceful.’
Dr Heather McQueen and Sheena Caskie
Dr Heather McQueen began to campaign for assisted dying after watching her mother, Sheena Caskie, die a ‘cruel and inhumane death’ from terminal cancer.
Mrs Caskie, from Kintyre, had been living with a rare form of anal cancer for more than two years before her death aged 79.
‘The radiotherapy treatment for her cancer had left her with third degree burns, and lying down was particularly painful – she was so sore sitting down that she ate standing up,’ Dr McQueen said.
Dr Heather McQueen (left) began to campaign for assisted dying after watching her mother, Sheena Caskie, (right) die a ‘cruel and inhumane death’ from terminal cancer
‘When mum’s Church of Scotland minister came to visit, she told her she was dying and did not feel afraid. That is the point at which she should have been allowed to die.
‘That week that followed, as we watched everything unfold in its full horror, we watched the fear growing in her face. There was the hunger and being parched. She could not take fluids by mouth.
‘She was also in great pain from the radiation burns and tumours and all the tubes she was dealing with. My mum had a great life and an absolutely horrible death.’
Andy Squires and Glenys Porter
Andy Squires, from Southport, helped his mother Glenys Porter travel to Dignitas so she could have an assisted death aged 67 after spending a decade suffering from the advanced stages of Huntington’s disease.
He was joined by his brother Peter on the trip, which cost £10,000.
The Squires brothers with their mother, Glenys Porter, who they helped travel to Dignitas
‘There was a great deal of conversation with mum for almost a year before we went to Dignitas, to give her all the alternatives, and to try and give her other options,’ he said.
‘Completely of sound mind with regards to travelling to Dignitas, she was very determined to see it through to the end, and go with dignity.
‘The trip to Dignitas was a sad time for everyone in our family but my brother and I went with mum to support her in her final days – we would never have let her die alone.’
Carol Conway and Noel Conway
Noel Conway challenged the laws on assisted dying after developing motor neurone disease, which left him with movement only in his right hand, head and neck.
Noel Conway became a campaigner for assisted dying after developing motor neurone disease
He died at home alongside his wife Carol in 2021 after deciding with his family to remove his ventilator.
Prior to his death, he said: ‘I felt like a condemned man awaiting execution on a date yet to be determined.
‘My immediate response was to get it over with as quickly as possible. I became aware of how agonising it must be to be someone on death row for years and years not knowing when the order will come.’
Mrs Conway told the BBC: ‘Noel was in control, which was so important.
‘Ultimately, Noel wanted the choice of an assisted death and I hope his campaigning will bring this option closer to becoming a reality for other terminally ill people in this country.’
Heather Pratten and Nigel Pratton
Heather Pratten smothered her son after he tried to take his own life while suffering from Huntington’s disease.
Nigel had never come to terms with his diagnosis, Ms Pratten said, and took a massive heroin overdose on his 42nd birthday.
Lying next to him and seeing him struggling to breathe as the drug took hold, Ms Pratten took a pillow and suffocated him to relieve his suffering.
She was initially charged with murder, but eventually pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting suicide.
Heather Pratten smothered her son after he tried to take his own life while suffering from Huntington’s disease
Nigel (pictured) had never come to terms with his diagnosis, Ms Pratten said, and took a massive heroin overdose on his 42nd birthday
She was initially charged with murder, but eventually pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting suicide.
A judge later ruled during her hearing in October 2000 that the case was an ‘exceptional circumstance’ and she was given a conditional discharge.
Calling for a right to die, she told the Basildon, Canvey and Southend Echo: ‘I have known that have been in absolute agony with illnesses, including my son. Why shouldn’t they be able to say that they have had enough, providing they’re within the last leg of their life,’ she said.
‘Where it’s legal already, in America and Canada, it’s not been taken advantage of, it’s been working.’
This post first appeared on Daily mail
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