Dame Esther Rantzen says she will ‘come back and haunt’ MPs who are yet to change the law on assisted dying.
MPs will debate and vote on Friday over the Assisted Dying Bill and decide whether or not the proposed controversial legislation can move to the next stage of parliamentary scrutiny.
If the Private Members’ Bill eventually passes into law, terminally ill adults in the UK will legally be able to die with the assistance of medical staff, provided they have the agreement of two doctors and a High Court judge.
Former That’s Life! presenter Dame Esther, 80, announced in January 2023 that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer, and in December last year she revealed she had joined the Dignitas assisted dying clinic in Switzerland.
Asked what will happen if the law remains unchanged, she said: ”I will go to Dignitas in Zurich for an assisted death, which I hope will be quick and kind and merciful and easy.
‘And then, I shall come back and haunt the Members of Parliament that haven’t changed our law yet.’
Dame Esther Rantzen has branded the current law ‘cruel’ (Picture: ViacomCBS / Photographer Dave Ki)
The Childline founder has been vocal about wanting to change the laws in the UK as, if she were to opt for assisted dying herself, her family could be vulnerable to prosecution should they accompany her to the clinic, facing 14 years in prison.
‘I will be listening, watching, glued to my television,’ she said ahead of today’s debate, as she branded the current law ‘cruel’ and ‘messy’.
‘What is happening at the moment is compelling people to have really agonising deaths,’ she said. ‘I’m afraid that memory of someone in agony becomes a terribly, terribly tragic memory that overwhelms happier memories.’
She insisted she doesn’t want her family to ‘have to witness’ her having a painful death.
Meanwhile Dame Esther also addressed concerns about the impact the Assisted Dying Bill could have on people with disabilities.
Pointing out that having a disability doesn’t mean you don’t have quality of life, she said: ‘I’m very saddened by the fact that disabled people feel that they’ll be any way involved.
‘This bill only applies to people that are terminally ill in the last six months of their lives.’
The bill has been fast-tracked to a vote after being first introduced as a Private Members’ Bill (PMB) in mid-October, which are bills introduced by MPs and peers who are not Government ministers.
But it has generated controversy from members of the house on both sides of the debate, who are concerned about the speed in which the bill is being brought to a vote, and a perceived lack of safeguarding measures.
The bill is being put to a ‘free vote’ on Friday, which means MPs are able to vote according to their own personal values and those of their constituents, rather than being advised to vote a certain way by party whips.
Dame Esther Rantzen vows to ‘haunt’ MPs if assisted dying isn’t legalised