Dame Esther Rantzen and Daily Express readers have scored a major victory in persuading lawmakers to discuss legalising assisted dying.
On April 29 MPs will for the first time since 2022 debate bringing about a change in the law.
The hugely significant debate is a huge boost to this newspaper’s Give Us Our Last Rights crusade, which seeks to enable terminally ill, mentally sound individuals with a prognosis of six months or less, the right to seek medical assistance to end their lives.
National treasure Dame Esther, 83, who has stage 4 lung cancer, said: “We are calling for the right for all of us to choose. It’s our life, it should be our choice.
“To paraphrase Sir Winston Churchill, we have given our politicians the tools, now they must finish the job.”
Lifelong campaigner Dame Esther is too ill to attend the debate in person, but the watershed moment could set in motion what would be one of the most important victories during a lifetime of championing the voiceless and standing up for the marginalised.
Diagnosed in January last year, Dame Esther has been the driving force behind reform to “outdated” assisted dying laws with her energy and passion galvanising support across Britain. If successful, she would be almost single-handedly responsible for bringing the UK in line with countries around the world in allowing seriously sick people to choose to pass away painlessly and with dignity.
Assisted dying for the terminally ill is legal in some US states, Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand. Polling shows more than 80% of the UK wants the right to end their lives as they see fit.
Yet as the law currently stands, grandmother-of-five Dame Esther’s three children Rebecca, Joshua and Miriam face prosecution should they accompany their mother on her final journey to Switzerland.
She said: “I’m not demanding everybody in the world agrees with me, I’m just saying let’s debate all the issues now we’ve got international evidence and we know the public attitude is in favour.”
The Express has asked all 32 cabinet members where they stand on assisted dying. Only two – Chancellor Jeremy Hunt and Foreign Office Minister Andrew Mitchell – responded but indicated they would vote in favour if given the chance.
Great British Bake Off judge Dame Prue Leith, 83, whose brother David died of bone cancer in 2012, said: “What is Parliament waiting for? Doing nothing represents a gross abdication of responsibility. “There is an inequity at the heart of this debate. If you don’t want an assisted death, you don’t need to have one – you get to have your choice. But I don’t get mine.”
