Death debate
MP Gillian Keegan says "It's time for another debate on assisted dying": https:// www.lbc.co.uk/news/ gillian-keegan-assisteddying-debate-dame-estherrantzen-campaign/
By adding her name in support of 'the assisted dying petition debate' in Westminster Hall to be held on 29th April following a recent opinion poll on behalf of 'Dignity in Dying', she will be joining 78% of people in her Chichester constituency supporting a change in the law. Every single constituency in England and Wales is now in favour (https://www. dignityindying.org.uk/mrp ). A published inquiry on assisted dying by the Health and Social Care Select Committee reports that palliative care alone cannot alleviate needlessly cruel torture endured during the final stages of terminal illness. Jonathan Dimbleby, recently witnessing the traumatic drawn-out death of his younger brother Nicholas from motor neurone disease, says such deaths are "increasingly unbearable" and akin to capital punishment. The
HSCS Committee insists there's no concerning ‘slippery slope’: assisted dying laws in other countries chosen by terminally ill people follow strict safeguarding criteria.
Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer have pledged time in the next Parliament to debate assisted dying should either win the forthcoming General Election. A Government petition spearheaded by Dignity in Dying, the Daily Express, and Dame Esther Rantzen (who joined Dignitas following her diagnosis of stage four lung cancer) both support a free vote on this issue likely to vastly exceed the 180,000 signatures counted on 28 March. MP
Kit Malthouse, chairing the all-party group on choice at the end of life, says with a new generation of MPS "there's every chance we will have legislation" following the last free vote in 2015 defeated by 118 to 330. Paola Marra's powerful appeal for assisted dying (Guardian, 21 March 2024) can be seen in her video clip cited below: "We are the ones dying. We should be the ones who choose how".
Along with countless others, I urge a change in the law on assisted dying. Terminally ill mentally competent adults enduring needlessly cruel prolonged traumatic suffering should be entitled to a fundamental right to choose to end their own lives in extremis with medical assistance. Dying people deserve a safeguarded compassionate entitlement to leave on their own terms.
VOICES MUST BE HEARD: Paola Marra says assisted dying is about reclaiming control and calls existing laws ‘unfair and cruel’ in her posthumous clip: https:// www.theguardian.com/ society/2024/mar/21/ woman-who-ended-lifeat-dignitas-leaves-videourging-for-change-in-ukassisted-dying-law
‘Facilities such as these need to be refurbished and upgraded’