Renowned British photographer and director Rankin has released a series of new videos in collaboration with the campaign group Dignity in Dying, urging MPs to 'back the bill again' as backbenchers prepare for Thursday's private member's bill ballot. The films feature intimate interviews with eight terminally ill individuals, aged 19 to 77, who share their personal stories and call for the revival of the assisted dying bill for England and Wales, which stalled in the House of Lords last month after passing the Commons.
A Personal Connection to the Cause
The campaign is deeply personal for Rankin, who previously photographed Paola Marra, a 53-year-old former music industry and charity worker with terminal bowel cancer. Marra's image, giving the finger to cancer, was released the day after her death at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland in March 2024. Rankin described meeting her as 'a punch to the stomach' and said the experience underscored the urgency of the issue.
Voices of the Terminally Ill
The videos, titled Time to Back the Bill Again, open with the line: 'Yep. I'm terminal.' They build into a collective appeal about end-of-life choice and democratic accountability, ending with the message: 'Together, we can finish what we started. It's time to back the bill again.'
Among the participants is Barbara Shooter, 69, who drove her husband Adrian to Dignitas in 2022 after he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease (MND). She has since been diagnosed with MND herself and expressed fury at the 'shocking' behaviour of a 'small number of Lords' who blocked the bill. 'Who wants to face horror and pain and awfulness at the end of their life when you know you're not going to get better? Some might be perfectly content to let nature take its course. It's their choice. And I want my choice,' she said.
Maddie Cowey, 28, was diagnosed with ultra-rare incurable alveolar soft part sarcomas at age 18 and now has more than 30 sarcoma nodules across both lungs. She said she has accepted death but not the possibility of suffering: 'Having the alternative of being able to choose how and when it happens would give me a lot of peace and hope.'
Public and Political Support
New polling by Opinium, released by Dignity in Dying, shows strong public backing for parliament to see the bill through to its democratic conclusion. Overall, 69% said the debate should continue until a decision is reached, while 61% thought the government should ensure MPs and peers have enough time to consider and vote on the bill.
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: 'Every week, dying people are left with the same cruel options: suffer, travel abroad to die, or act alone. This is bigger than assisted dying. MPs voted for compassion. Unelected peers with their own agenda tore down our democratic principles. Parliament has unfinished business, and it's time for MPs to return the bill to Westminster and finish what they started.'
