Following Dame Esther Rantzen’s support of the assisted dying movement, celebrities and activists will assemble in Westminster for a debate on the topic. Rantzen is a cancer patient.
Dame Susan Hampshire, broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby, and seasoned activist Peter Tatchell are anticipated to be among the prominent individuals in attendance.
Pro-change campaign group My Death, My Decision described it as a ‘significant moment in the campaign for a compassionate assisted dying law’.
It comes after a petition for a debate gained more than 200,000 signatures and was promoted by Dame Esther, who has stage four lung cancer and has signed up for the Dignitas assisting dying clinic in Switzerland.
The Childline founder, 83, previously led a chorus of dismay after a report by MPs into assisted dying failed to deliver any clear-cut findings or proposals—and called for a free vote on the issue.
Speaking to ITV News Dame Esther said: ‘I had three deaths that happened very soon after each other. There was Desy (Desmond), my husband, there was my mother and there was our dog and there’s no question my dog had the best death.’
‘We can offer our beloved pets a pain-free death and we can’t offer it to our beloved family.’
Dame Esther has branded the current law, which she said could see her family left at risk of prosecution if they helped her to go to Switzerland, as ‘not right’ and ‘not ethical’.
Last week, Dame Esther said she would ‘sadly’ be unable to attend Monday’s event in person because of her health, but vowed she ‘will be watching the debate closely as it affects my own decision to go to Dignitas in Zurich if necessary, to protect my family from witnessing a painful death’.
Dame Esther’s daughter Rebecca Wilcox told GMB this morning that they had always been a ‘revoltingly open family about everything’.
She added: ‘This woman is my person, she’s my best friend, I talk to her four times a day about everything and I adore her.
‘But if I go with her to Switzerland I face prosecution, the process can take up to two years, cost thousands of pounds in legal fees and I face up to 14 years in prison.’
Paul Carroll, who had signed up with Dignitas, told GMB that he ripped up his membership after seeing his aunt, his mother and his mother-in-law through to the end of their lives.
This needs to happen. I can understand that some people might have some worries over it, but when you have seen so many people suffer and die from various diseases first-hand, you begin to realise how vital this option is. Every human being should have the right to choose when the time comes, to pass away with dignity on their own terms.
The only legal problem that I see is that patients with dementia cannot make their own decisions because they lack the mental capacity, and if it were made legal, make no mistake, many families would be encouraging their elderly relatives to make this decision because money affects people in a disturbing way.
There should be a referendum in the UK on this matter because it is far too significant to let MPs vote freely on.
The decision to die or not should only be made by the individual experiencing excruciating agony because it is their body and their choice. Most definitely not a group of inexperienced Members of Parliament.
I wholeheartedly support this cause. Why do we let humans suffer but we wouldn’t let an animal suffer?
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 