Esther Rantzen has described the UK government’s law on assisted dying as a “mess” as she renews her calls to legalise the procedure.
On Thursday a report by MPs said the UK government must make plans for if the law is changed in Scotland, the Isle of Man or Jersey, where new measures on the issue are being considered.
The Commons health and social care committee said legalisation in at least one jurisdiction was looking “increasingly likely” and suggested the government must be “actively involved” in discussions about how to approach differences in the law. The report did not make a recommendation for a vote on the issue.
Rantzen, 83, who has stage-four cancer, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The thing that motivates me greatly is having watched the deaths of loved ones around me and seeing how memories of a bad death obliterate happy memories.”
Dr John Sorrell, an opponent of assisted dying, said on the programme that the report did not challenge the idea that some people may be put under pressure to choose an assisted death.
Rantzen said there should be clear parameters about who would be eligible, citing guidance from the campaign group Dignity in Dying, which recommends that people with six months or less to live should have the option to legally end their own life.
She said people who wanted to end their life because of severe mental illness should not be given access to assisted death. “Obviously it can be intense, as real as physical suffering, but it’s too difficult to define,” she said.
Rantzen warned that some British people seeking assisted death in countries where the practice is legal were dying alone due to fears that their families could face police investigations in the UK.
“Say I take the decision that I am not finding my life bearable and I decided the only way to end it legally is to go to Switzerland, to Zurich, to Dignitas. Can my loved ones go with me? No, they can’t. Because if they do they run the risk of being investigated by the police to see if they have applied pressure and been party to my murder or manslaughter. So if I go to Zurich, I would have to go alone.
“There are stories in this report of people who are at the time of their greatest pain, their greatest loss, who have undergone police investigations. It’s wrong,” she said.
Rantzen has been campaigning on the issue for some time, including backing the launch of a petition demanding a parliamentary vote. She said: “I’m watching the spring flowers come out, thinking this is probably my last spring. When I talk to my grandchildren when they come and visit me, I’m very aware that these moments are precious, they may be the last memories they have of me.
“It would give me so much confidence if I could also know that, however the illness progresses, whatever pain is caused, wherever it strikes me next, I will still have the choice of a pain-free, dignified, private death surrounded by people I love.”
Jersey, the Isle of Man and Scotland are all considering the legalisation of assisted dying. In each case only permanent residents would be eligible.
The committee noted that the government had made it clear it would be a matter for parliament to take any steps towards legalisation, a sentiment echoed by the Labour leader, Keir Starmer.
Assisted dying is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.
