Dame Esther Rantzen, who has stage four lung cancer, has revealed that her current medication is 'delaying things' but may stop working, prompting her to renew her plea for assisted dying to be legalised in the UK. The 83-year-old broadcaster told the Radio 4 Today programme that MPs must attend today's parliamentary debate on the issue, which follows a petition with over 200,000 signatures.
Dame Esther, who has signed up with the Swiss assisted dying clinic Dignitas, said: 'Whatever their view, whether they support a change in the law or not, it is so important that they hear the evidence from around the world because other countries are ahead of us.' She added: 'Isn't it typically British that we give the pets we love a pain-free, dignified, private death but we can't offer it to the people we love.'
If her treatment fails, Dame Esther said she will 'buzz off to Zurich'. The clinic has seen more than 650 Britons travel there to end their lives legally, as assisted dying is banned in the UK and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
Dignitas provides assisted dying for members with illnesses that 'will lead inevitably to death, unendurable pain or an unendurable disability'. The process involves a 'reasoned request', medical evidence, and at least two face-to-face assessments. The patient takes a fast-acting, painless lethal drug dissolved in water, falling asleep within minutes. After death, undertakers and police are called, and the death is monitored by police via a TV in a side room.
Opponents of assisted dying warn that a change in the law could put vulnerable people at risk. The Campaign for Dignity in Dying estimates that between 300 and 650 dying people take their own lives each year in the UK.
