Woman told: ‘Your life is less valuable’
Fury over lord’s cancer comment
FORMER Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption sparked outrage yesterday when he told a cancer sufferer her life was ‘less valuable’ than others.
Jonathan Sumption made the comment to Stage 4 bowel cancer sufferer and broadcaster Deborah James during a TV debate over whether lockdown measures were punishing ‘too many for the greater good’.
The retired judge argued that restrictions were harming a younger population rarely affected by coronavirus. The 72-year-old told BBC1’s The Big Questions: ‘All lives are not of equal value – the older you are, the less valuable yours is because there’s less of it left.’
He said he believed his children’s and grandchildren’s lives were worth more than his ‘because they’ve got a lot more of it ahead’.
Miss James, 39, was brought into the discussion by presenter Nicky Campbell as a younger person with a lifethreatening condition.
The host of the BBC’s You, Me And The Big C podcast told Lord Sumption: ‘With all due respect, I’m the person who you say their life is not valuable. I live with metastatic bowel cancer.’
Lord Sumption then interrupted her and said: ‘I didn’t say it was not valuable, I said it was less valuable.’ Following Lord Sumption’s on-air interjection, Mr Campbell repeated his comment in order for Miss James to respond.
The broadcaster, who has had 17 tumours, told Lord Sumption: ‘Who are you to put a value on life? In my view, and I think in many others, life is sacred and i don’t think we should make those judgment calls. All life is worth saving regardless of what life it is people are living.
Professor Pat Price, a lead ing oncologist and founder of the Catch Up With Cancer campaign, said: ‘This is outrageous – every patient’s life is important.’
Last night Lord Sumption, who sat in the Supreme Court from 2012 until his retirement in 2018, told the Mail the footage of his comments had been misinterpreted. He said: ‘I object extremely strongly to any suggestion that I was inferring that Miss James’s life was less valuable because she had cancer.
‘I thought she was responding to my earlier comments about older people being protected by a total lockdown which is causing immense harm to the young.’
Lord Sumption added: ‘I was saying that young people should not be sacrificed to save old people.’
‘Every patient’s life is important’