Calls for a vote on assisted dying

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MPs should be given the opportunity to debate and vote on assisted dying after the findings of a new report, Dame Esther Rantzen says.

The Health and Social Care Committee found evidence it has led to better end-of-life care in some countries where it is allowed.

Dame Esther said this showed there is no “slippery slope” when it comes to the impact on palliative care.

But Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson said potential coercion remained a concern.

The Commons’ committee’s review looked at places where assisted dying for the terminally ill is allowed, including parts of the US, as well as Australia, Switzerland and New Zealand.

The cross-party group of MPs did not rule on a change in the law in England, saying it only wanted to inform debate.

Despite concern a change in the law would lead to poorer support at the end of life, the committee’s report said, if anything, it was linked to improvement in the countries to have taken the step, with evidence showing the alterations resulted in extra investment in palliative care.

Former TV presenter and Childline founder Dame Esther, who has stage four cancer, said the new report assuaged fears that palliative care could be damaged by introducing assisted dying.

“There isn’t the slippery slope that so many are worried about,” she said.

The report has cemented Dame Esther’s belief that a parliamentary debate and free vote should be held on the subject.

“I’m not demanding that everybody in the world agrees with me, I’m just saying let’s debate all the issues now that we’ve got international evidence and we know the public attitude is in favour,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

But she said she was “disappointed” that the committee had not made a clear call for a vote, saying it “doesn’t fit into her timescale”.

“This report does not help very much for those of us who desperately want the current law to change for the sake of our own families, and the many others in our situation,” Dame Esther told the PA news agency.

The 83-year-old, who has stage four cancer, has been campaigning on the issue, including backing the launch of a petition demanding a parliamentary vote, which amassed tens of thousands of signatures over a few weeks.

She added: “If they had said ‘we urgently need a Parliamentary debate and a free vote’, you know, that could perhaps have fitted into my own timescale, but it doesn’t.”

The 83-year-old Childline founder and broadcaster has long campaigned in favour of assisted dying, and revealed last year that she joined the Swiss Euthanasia programme Dignitas.

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