A widow who travelled to Dignitas with her terminally ill husband is urging MPs to vote for the assisted dying bill, explaining: “Our children will never forgive us for lying to them”.
It has been two years since Louise Shackleton, 59, from North Yorkshire, travelled to Switzerland with Antony, 59, who went to escape a torturous death from Motor Neurone Disease. As the bill returns to the House of Commons for a second time, she is pleading with politicians: “Be brave, vote for the bill”.
Bill returns to Commons
MPs will on Friday vote on landmark plans to legalise assisted dying, months after a former bid ran out of time to become law. Labour MP Lauren Edwards has brought forward a bill identical to the previous legislation spearheaded by Kim Leadbeater. It would allow terminally ill people in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to seek an assisted death, subject to approval by doctors and legal professionals.
Ms Leadbeater’s legislation was effectively talked out of time in the Lords in Parliament's last session, despite MPs taking the historic step to pass it in the Commons. More than 1,200 amendments were put forward, with more than 800 of those tabled or sponsored by seven peers. They insist they were scrutinising the legislation.
Polling on knife-edge
Polling over the weekend showed six in 10 people support the return of the assisted dying Bill to Parliament. Of 1,133 people aged 16-75 surveyed at the end of August, 61% said they supported the reintroduction of the Bill, Ipsos found. Another poll revealed the vote was on a knife-edge, with the majority of the 100 backbench MPs quizzed having reservations about it.
Keir Starmer previously voted in favour of the law change, but new PM Andy Burnham has confirmed he will abstain from the vote, so as not to “unduly influence the debate”.
Widow's trauma
Since her husband died at Dignitas, Louise has been campaigning for the bill. She told The Mirror: “Going with my husband to Dignitas and having to lie to our children was one of the most upsetting things that we both had to do. I don’t think our children will ever forgive us for doing that as they would have wanted to be with him no matter what the consequences would have been for them.”
The couple flew to Switzerland in December 2024, and Louise returned to the UK days later, alone and a widow. She described being haunted by memories of having to tell their children their dad had died. “I was on my own in an Uber after holding my husband’s dead body and then had to ring them to tell them their father had died. I think about those phone calls all the time, I am traumatised by them. To hear them breaking their hearts and I could not hold them and comfort them,” she said.
Mrs Shackleton spent 10 months under investigation for assisting a suicide before police announced that the Crown Prosecution Service had decided it was not in the public interest to prosecute her.
Final plea
She added: “Knowing that he would have had a choice of an assisted death at home would have kept the family together. We could have all been with him in his final moments. We could have comforted each other after he died and he could have been in his own home.”
In a final plea she said: “As usual the people that oppose assisted dying are bringing all their straw men arguments. We need to be honest and we need to be open, coercion is a behaviour, that behaviour does not manifest itself because of a change in the law. As it stands at the moment people at risk of coercion are at risk of taking their lives at home un-safeguarded, if they’ve slipped through the net. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill actually puts the safeguard in place for those people at risk. Every one of you has a choice because you have the wealth. Please be human, do the right thing and give the general public the choice that you have.”
Lauren Edwards, writing in the Guardian, said: “On Friday, I will be asking MPs to send the bill back to the Lords. There they can amend the bill if they choose, just like any legislation, and if the Commons agrees, that’s fine. But they should not be allowed to frustrate the will of the elected chamber a second time.”
In June last year (2025), MPs voted by 314 in favour of the legislation to 291 against, a slim majority of 23. This was a drop in support from a majority of 55 at a vote held in November. Critics have raised concerns about protections for the vulnerable against coercion and the safeguarding of people with mental health issues. Others have called for improved access and funding of palliative care before assisted dying is considered. Former lead MP campaigner Ms Leadbeater said the plans will ensure “strict safeguards”, writing for The Mirror: “We have let down terminally ill people and their loved ones for far too long. All they are asking for is choice.”
