Campaigners on both sides of the assisted dying debate voiced their opinions as they gathered outside Parliament ahead of a crunch vote on Friday.
Dame Prue Leith, Dame Esther Rantzen’s daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, and the broadcaster, Jonathan Dimbleby, were among the high-profile figures supporting the Bill to change the law in England and Wales.
Members of the Dignity in Dying campaign wore pink and held placards in memory of friends and family members.
Those opposed to the Bill included groups dressed as scientists in white lab coats and bloodied gloves and masks, as well as nuns and other members of religious organisations.
The mood amongst campaigners was largely calm and respectful on both sides.
Dame Prue told the PA news agency she was “both nervous and confident” about the outcome.
“It’s so moving to see all these people with placards of people they’ve lost or people who are dying of cancer,” she said.
“It’s hard not to cry because I think they have done such a good job. Let’s hope we’ve won.”
Mr Dimbleby said he believed the Bill would be “transformative”.
He added: “What it will mean is millions of people will be able to say to themselves, ‘If I’m terminally ill, I will be able to choose, assuming I am of sound mind and I am not being coerced, to say ‘Yes, I want to be assisted – I have dignity in death’.”
Rebecca Wilcox, the daughter of Dame Esther, said: “It couldn’t be a kinder, more compassionate Bill that respects choice at the end of life, that respects kindness and empathy and gives us all an option when other options, every other option, has been taken away, and it would just be the perfect tool for a palliative care doctor to have in their med bag.”
Teachers Catie and Becky Fenner said they wanted other families to benefit from the Bill.
Their mother, who had motor neurone disease, had flown to Dignitas in Switzerland to end her life at a cost of £15,000. The sisters said they did not get to properly say goodbye and grieve and worried about the legal repercussions.
Catie, 37, said: “We were left quite traumatised by the whole experience – not only seeing a parent go through a really horrible disease but then the secrecy of the planning.”
Campaigners against the Bill, who were gathered outside Parliament, chanted “We are not dead yet” and “Kill the Bill, not the ill”.
A display was erected with a gravestone reading “RIP: The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. Bury it deep”, and behind were two mounds meant to resemble graves.
Andrew Hilliard, 75, said he was opposed for religious reasons. He was dressed in a white lab coat with a placard reading: “Protect our NHS from becoming the National Suicide Service”.
The chief executive of Care Not Killing, Dr Gordon Macdonald, said MPs should prioritise improving palliative care.
He said: “Most people, when thinking about the practical implications of this, for those most vulnerable, they change their minds.”
George Fielding, a campaigner affiliated with the Not Dead Yet group which is opposed to assisted dying, said he attended to represent disabled people.
He said: “This Bill will endanger and shorten the lives of disabled people.”
