Dame Esther Rantzen has shared a heartbreaking admission after campaigning for the assisted dying bill. The broadcaster is currently fighting terminal lung cancer after initially discovering a lump under her arm pit around Christmas in 2022. Just weeks later in January 2023, a biopsy confirmed that Dame Esther, 84, had cancer.
In May of the same year, she confirmed that her condition was at stage four and was taking medication to keep her comfortable and ease her symptoms. But last month, her daughter revealed that the medication was no longer working as Dame Esther wasn’t responding to it.
Since sharing her diagnosis, the philanthropist has spoken openly about signing up for Dignitas – a clinic in Switzerland where assisted dying is legal. She says that by joining the clinic, it was the only way she was able to control the end of her life, should it become “unbearable.”
But Dame Esther has also been a strong advocate for the assisted dying bill, which is currently being debated in parliament. However, MP Kim Leadbeater, who was behind the Assisted Dying Bill had agreed to pause the introduction until 2029. While Assisted Dying is currently illegal in England, the bull has recently been passed by the Isle of Man parliament and is currently awaiting royal assent from King Charles, which would make the Isle of Man the first place in Great Britain to legalise assisted dying.
Speaking about her fate, Dame Esther wrote for The Times: “I always knew that any change in the assisted dying law could not possibly come in time for me. So the delay — the law in England and Wales could be pushed back until at least 2029 — won’t affect me personally.”
In true Dame Esther fashion, she continued thinking of others before herself, adding: “I am extremely sorry for the sake of other terminally ill patients who will be denied the right to choose. The sooner it is put in place, the more patients will be given that right and the more vulnerable people will be protected from pressure or coercion. At the moment, the law does not protect them at all.”
However, she did praise Leadbeater, explaining: “It [assisted dying] is a crucial campaign. Kim Leadbeater and her committee and their many witnesses have worked so hard to create the new assisted dying law, which will contain sufficient precautions to protect the vulnerable but will still be accessible enough to enable terminally ill patients to decide if their life becomes unbearable. I owe it to them to support their work in any way I can.”
Speaking to 5 News last month, Dame Esther’s daughter Rebecca shed light on her decision to join Dignitas. She explained: “I just wish that people understood that all the Assisted Dying Bill is, is choice for people that want it.
“We thought she had weeks, in fact, she has outlived that prognosis by nearly two years. She would never have just gone and taken an overdose as she got a diagnosis, that’s not how it works.
“What it does, is it takes away those last few days of pain.” Elsewhere, she went on to add: “Frankly Dignitas is out of the window for us as well. You have to be relatively healthy to do that, if she had gone, she would have gone months before she would have died here.”
According to a list published by the England Parliament, MPs including Dame Angela Eagle, Samantha Dixon, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, Jeremy Hunt and Sir Oliver Dowden have backed the campaign.
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister, Angela Rayner, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Jeremy Corbyn have refused to back the bill.
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