‘Discussion needed about right to die’
Harvey Tordoff has been undergoing cancer treatment for the best part of a decade as doctors help his body fight the disease — but he would like the right to die.
After having a major relapse in his cancer treatment in early March, Harvey, who is vice-chairman of the Midhurst Society, was admitted to the emergency room of St Richard’s Hospital in Chichester.
“I was very poorly,” he said. “It seemed that the treatment wasn’t working, and that my systems were failing. I told the emergency team that I wanted to die.”
Despite his reasoning, his request was denied. Assisted dying, which encompasses euthanasia and assisted suicide, is illegal in the UK under the Suicide Act 1961.
For ten years, up until recently, Harvey had nursed and cared for his wife through cancer.
He added: “I am in my seventh year of cancer treatment, and now it seemed that I was going to need similar care – perhaps for several more years.
"I wasn’t rushing to be reunited with my dead wife, but it didn’t seem fair that my son should follow helping care for a dying mother by life as primary carer for a dying father.
"I wasn’t depressed. I’d had a wonderful life, I was fulfilled, but I didn’t want it to end in increasing distress and discomfort.”
He added that he had told hospital staff his wishes: “I want to die now rather than recover for a short period.”
But he was told: “But you’re not dying.”
There was no conversation to be had, he said.
He added: “Assisted dying is illegal. But where is the respect and dignity that we show a person caught in this predicament?
"We don’t seem to be able to get beyond the possibility of unscrupulous relatives, and yet surely this is a discussion that should be taking place somewhere in society.
"I survived the latest crisis, and I am now waiting to be discharged, but my systems are still failing and this is something I will likely have to deal with again.”
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