Esther Rantzen has urged all MPs to back Kim Leadbeater’s “strong, safe, carefully considered bill” to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales, which faces its next Commons test on Friday.
In an impassioned letter, the broadcaster, who has stage-four lung cancer, said she and other terminally ill adults asked MPs to allow “a good, pain-free death for ourselves and those we love and care for”.
A group of MPs from medical backgrounds also implored colleagues to support the bill, saying most healthcare professionals “understand that the current law is not working”.
The letters are the latest skirmish in the battle over the private member’s bill to allow assisted for dying terminally ill people who have fewer than six months to live, spearheaded by Leadbeater, a Labour MP.
The bill, which passed its second reading by 55 votes, had been due to face another yes-or-no vote on Friday, the committee stage. But the Commons speaker, Linsday Hoyle, granted more time for the debate, meaning the only votes will be on specific amendments.
These will nonetheless be closely watched for any signs of shifting sentiment among MPs. Opponents of the bill have talked up the idea that a number of supporters have since changed their minds, but only a handful of MPs have said this publicly.
In her letter, Rantzen sought to assuage opponents’ worries, for example that the measure could be used against people with disabilities, which she said was not true. “This is a strong, safe, carefully considered bill, guided by Kim Leadbeater and her excellent committee,” she wrote.
She went on: “All we terminally ill adults ask of you, our MPs, is to remember how much suffering our current messy, cruel criminal law creates. How many lonely painful deaths. How many suicides. How many agonising memories have been created by it.
“Please vote for this crucial reform, as so many other countries have, not for me, and for those like me who are running rapidly out of time, but for future generations to have the right, if necessary, not to shorten their lives, but to shorten their deaths.”
Rantzen’s letter accused some opponents to the bill of doing so because of “undeclared personal religious beliefs which mean no precautions would satisfy them”, a charge which has angered MPs.
The MPs’ letter is signed by three former doctors – Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative), Simon Opher and Peter Prinsley (both Labour) – and a former nurse, Kevin McKenna (Labour).
They criticised what they called the “misleading” idea that medical professionals tended to oppose assisted dying, saying surveys had shown, at worst, mixed sentiments.
They wrote: “In our experience, most healthcare professionals understand that the current law is not working. It criminalises compassion and forces dying people into situations no civilised healthcare system should accept: unbearable pain, unmitigated suffering, or the traumatic decision to end their lives overseas.
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“As doctors and clinicians, we would not tolerate such a system in any other area of care. As parliamentarians, we cannot defend it now.”
Under the timetable set out by Hoyle, two sets of the amendments agreed in the committee stage will be voted on, first on Friday and then on 13 June.
Among the votes on Friday will be amendments intended to tighten up the bill, for example adding a further check on applications for assisted dying, and ensuring doctors and others are able to opt out of involvement in the process.
While the next vote on the future of the bill itself is not until 20 June, Friday’s votes will be keenly watched for any changes in support. The Conservative MP George Freeman, who backed the second reading in November, has since said he will vote no, and there are a handful of others understood to be changing their minds.
Leadbeater insisted on Thursday that there had been no major drop in support. “There might be some move in either direction but certainly not a huge amount of movement,” she told LBC radio.
