Nathaniel Dye has spoken about having cancer at Labour events (Image: Ian Vogler / Daily Mirror)
The assisted dying Bill offers people who are nearing the end of life choice “at their darkest hour”, a terminally ill teacher has said. Nathaniel Dye, 38, has stage four bowel cancer which has spread to his liver, lungs, lymph nodes and brain.
He supports proposed legislation which would allow patients who are terminally ill and expected to die within six months to request life-ending medication.
Nathaniel said: “I see this as a chance just to act with kindness and a choice for people at their darkest hour.
“I am not a doctor, I am not a lawyer, but I would just implore MPs and peers to really carefully consider these safeguards. I think it’s the best phrase I’ve got: my very death depends on it.”
Nathaniel spoke at a press conference on Tuesday in Westminster alongside Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP who is bringing the Bill.
READ MORE: Assisted dying Bill – every detail explained
Nathaniel’s MP, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, will vote against the Bill (Image: Andy Stenning/Daily Mirror)
He said: “I’ve lived with cancer for two years now. Doctors are quite reluctant to give exact figures and prognosis but 10% of people with my condition, stage four bowel cancer, survive for five years.
“Rather than death being an abstract concept for me, it’s really coming up. With this Bill being proposed, it’s got me thinking.”
The music teacher said he had seen some positive experiences of death, including that of his fiancé who died of cancer in 2011 and “drifted off into sleep”. His mother also died of bowel cancer and “palliative care did ease her suffering”.
Nathaniel went on: “I might have brain surgery soon, I’m hoping to survive that. Who knows, maybe chemo will work and I’ll be cancer-free for a bit and I’ll be able to ring that bell.
“However, I’m hoping for the best but I’m preparing for the worst. I see this Bill as a chance for people like me to maybe, not necessarily, but maybe avoid that worst case scenario of an horrific death.”
Adding that he was not afraid of dying, Nathaniel said it was his loved ones including his siblings and father that he worried most about.
He explained: “They will have to live with the manner of my death for the rest of their lives. The people I’ve lost, I’m still haunted by their deaths – and their deaths were relatively kind.
“What I see in this Bill is a chance for people in my situation to commit one last act of kindness to their family, and I guess to myself as well. To say, ‘Can we avoid this horrific death? Can we make my end as kind and compassionate as possible?’”
Ms Leadbeater’s Bill will face a second reading on November 29, when MPs are expected to debate it for around five hours before voting.
Nathaniel’s MP is Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has said he will vote against the Bill due to concerns that people would request an assisted death because they cannot access good palliative care.
But Nathaniel said he disagreed with the idea that “palliative care has to somehow be better before we consider this”.
He added: “Imagine I am dying and palliative care hasn’t improved. Well, I have no choice whatsoever: I die in pain or I die in pain.
“Another [opposing argument] is people feeling like they might be coerced, even implicitly, or feeling like they’re a burden.
“I wish we could ban that word from this debate because the thought that maybe I might want to end their life just because I think people might go to trouble over me, that just makes absolutely no sense to me.”
The Bill is backed by the Express Give Us Our Last Rights crusade and Dame Esther Rantzen, 84, who has spoken about her own decision to register with Dignitas after being diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
The veteran broadcaster’s daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, said: ”It’s her choice how she dies. It’s my choice how I die. It’s your choice how you die.
“Just because this Bill is in process, just because assisted dying could be happening, doesn’t mean that anyone has to choose to do it.
“In fact, so many people that sign up for it in so many places like Oregon, where it is legal, they don’t take it up in the end. But they know that it’s there. It’s peace of mind that calms you in such a stressful moment.”
Ms Wilcox said she would advise families in a similar position to “have the conversation as soon as you can when you get the diagnosis. Really listen to what the person wants.”
Former director of public prosecutions Sir Max Hill also spoke in favour of the Bill at the Westminster event, describing it as “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” for Parliament to act in the public interest.
He said the current situation either leads people to travel to Dignitas in Switzerland if they have money, or for relatives to consider assisting their loved ones to die against the law if they cannot make the journey.
Sir Max went on: “Those two reasons combine surely to make an unanswerable argument that the law at the moment provides no safeguards, no rails, no guidance and leaves the vulnerable in a pitiful situation.
“When I look at the draft Bill that has just been released, it has got safeguards all over it on every page and at every stage.
“All I say is that once we get past November 29 and the second reading of this Bill, that provides a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Parliament, who act in all of our interests, to debate every word, every line and every clause in this Bill.”
Meanwhile, research led by the esteemed Nuffield Council on Bioethics found 70% of people in England supported law change on assisted dying, while just 14% opposed it. The survey of 2,000 adults was carried out in September.
Top reasons given for supporting it were that “someone terminally ill or without quality of life should be allowed to end their life”; “that people should not have to suffer” and “that people should have a right to choose”.
Support was strongest among men, those aged 55-74, white people, those with no religious beliefs and those living outside of London.
