Support grows for assisted dying review

A retired surgeon with advanced prostate cancer has backed calls for a review of the UK’s assisted dying laws.

Dr Henry Marsh said he believed that if people in his situation were able to “choose how, when, and where they would die” this would “greatly reduce their suffering”.

His comments come alongside a joint letter from parliamentarians to Justice Secretary Robert Buckland which argued the UK was “falling behind the rest of the world”.

It stated: “It has now been half a decade since parliament examined legislation on assisted dying, and 15 years since it formally scrutinised the issue via Lord Joffe’s Select Committee.

“In these years, the evidence has materially changed, and that new evidence necessitates a fresh review.”

The letter, which has cross party support, claimed that there had been “a significant shift in professional medical opinion and within the disability community”.

It claimed that the organisations Parkinson’s UK, the Multiple Sclerosis Society, and the Motor Neurone Disease Association “have adopted neutral stances on this important issue”.

Dr Marsh, 71, said: “Having spent a lifetime operating on people with cancer, the prospect of dying slowly from it myself fills me with dread.

“Despite the best efforts of palliative medicine, I know that dying from cancer can still be a very horrible business despite what the opponents of assisted dying claim.

“I fiercely believe that if people in my situation knew they had the ability to choose how, when, and where they would die, it would greatly reduce their suffering.”