Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Terminally ill cancer doc: Let people choose when to die
A TOP neurosurgeon has demanded an urgent review of assisted dying laws after revealing he has advanced prostate cancer.
Dr Henry Marsh said the current ban means he must suffer.
And he accused MPS who duck the issue of being “inadvertently guilty of great cruelty”.
Speaking publicly about his diagnosis for the first time, Dr
Marsh, 71, who is due to start radiotherapy in a few months, said: “Having spent a lifetime operating on people with cancer, the prospect of dying slowly from it myself fills me with dread.
“Despite palliative medicine, I know it can still be a horrible business – for both patient and family, despite what the opponents of assisted dying claim.
“If people in my situation had the ability to choose how, when, and where they die, it would greatly reduce their suffering. But as it stands, the law insists instead that I must suffer.
“Many politicians have shown a striking lack of compassion by ducking this issue and are inadvertently guilty of great cruelty.”
Dr Marsh’s calls have been backed by more than 50 MPS and peers in a joint letter calling for the Justice Secretary to launch an inquiry into assisted dying.
It notes that Canada, Germany, Italy, New Zealand, and parts of the US and Australia have changed or are due to change their laws. It also highlights a survey which reported that half of doctors supporting assisted dying with just 39% against.
Opponents say current rules protect the vulnerable from being pressured into ending their lives.
But a spokesman for Humanists UK called assisted dying “a fundamental freedom”.