Respected broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby has said the UK’s law against assisted dying is ‘increasingly intolerable’.
In the wake of his brother’s death from motor neurone disease, Mr Dimbleby said: ‘The law needs to be changed.’
His younger brother Nicholas, a celebrated sculptor, died at home earlier this month at the age of 77 after a long battle with MND.
Mr. Dimbleby told it The guard that current rules making assisted dying a criminal offense are ‘anachronistically as cruel as the death penalty’.
Mr Dimbleby, a friend of King Charles, added: ‘The law must be changed so that individuals like my brother, protected by crucial legal safeguards, would have the right to die at home at a time of their choosing.’
Respected broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby has said the UK’s law against medically assisted death is “increasingly intolerable” following the death of his brother.
Mr Dimbleby’s brother Nicholas, a celebrated sculptor, died at home earlier this month aged 77. Here he is depicted with his sculpture “A bronze boy on a pedestal”
Figures released earlier this year show that there were 1,528 members of Dignitas from Britain at the end of December 2022, according to figures from the non-profit organisation, which supports dying patients with a ‘self-determined end of life’. . This is up from 821 in 2012. Around 33 people from Britain received assisted death with Dignitas in 2022 – an increase from 23 people the year before
About his brother he said: ‘He was a wonderful, strong person, both mentally and physically, and he felt this erosion of life very deeply.
‘He showed tremendous courage, but as the disease progressed he suffered terrifying attacks of choking, although thankfully his last hours were peaceful.’
Mr Dimbleby added that while he respected those who were concerned about assisted dying for moral or religious reasons, politicians had been “misled” by those who said it was always possible to achieve a pain-free death and that ‘bad people’ would try to prevent this. ensure that the terminally ill choose an assisted death for their own benefit.
Before he died, Nicholas himself told Jonathan in a BBC Radio 4 documentary: ‘I will decide when to stop… I will say that I will not fall miserably into nothing and that I will take control of how I will finish. But I don’t know when that will happen. It’s a problem.’
He added: ‘Nobody in the industry helping me wants to talk about this – Switzerland or anywhere else.’
However, on the advice of experts, Nicholas decided, since he did not expect a painful death, to stay at home and die.
Nicholas, whose works include public images of footballer Jimmy Hill and poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, was diagnosed with ALS last year.
The rare and incurable condition attacks the brain and nerves, robbing patients of their ability to move, eat and ultimately breathe.
Mr Dimbleby has direct experience of caring for the terminally ill.
In 2003, he left his wife of 35 years to spend a few final weeks with his dying lover.
His affair with opera singer Susan Chicott was short-lived. They had only seen each other for a few days when she discovered a lump in her breast that turned out to be breast cancer.
Mr Dimbleby is not the first public figure to call for change.
Late last year, broadcaster Dame Esther Rantzen, 83, announced she was considering an assisted death in Switzerland after being diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer.
The public also seems to support change.
A poll in January found that 75 percent of Britons would support making assisted dying legal for terminally ill adults of sound mind, after approval by two doctors. Only 13 percent were against.
As public opinion has changed, so have politicians. Labor leader Keir Starmer has said there are reasons to change the law, and Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has also said the issue needs to be discussed.
Scotland is already proposing its own legalization of assisted dying, which is expected to be debated at Holyrood next year.
Mr Dimbleby’s comments come as MPs on the health and social care select committee are expected to publish the results of a fourteen-month inquiry into assisted dying tomorrow.
MPs have heard impassioned pleas from both sides of the debate.
Critics say assisted dying can be a form of elder abuse and that individuals can pressure the terminally ill to access their money or simply get rid of the burden of caring for them.
Many religious groups also oppose any change, claiming it would undermine the value society places on human life.
They also pointed to legislation in Canada, where people with incurable medical conditions can apply to die even if the disease is not terminal, as an example of how far such laws can go.
The country’s legislation on medically assisted dying is among the most liberal in the world.
However, advocates have warned that the terminally ill would have to choose between “suicide, Switzerland or suffering” and that future generations would be “shocked” by the current legislation.
Mr Dimbleby, a friend of King Charles, said: ‘The law must be changed so that individuals like my brother, protected by crucial legal safeguards, would have the right to die at home at a time of their choosing.’ The couple pictured here in 1994
Dame Esther Rantzen, 83, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer last year and has since revealed she has joined assisted dying clinic Dignitas in Switzerland
British charities estimate that every eight days a Briton travels abroad for assisted death.
They have repeatedly warned that Britons are voting with their feet, while those who can afford it are going abroad to countries where assisted death is legal.
But this leaves many with no choice but to consider committing suicide.
This, they add, can lead to people experiencing pain and suffering when they die, compared to a painless, medically assisted death.
Medically assisted dying, or euthanasia, is illegal in Britain and can be prosecuted as manslaughter or murder, with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Helping someone commit suicide, also known as assisted suicide, is also a crime and punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Over the past thirteen years, two hundred cases of assisted death or assisted suicide have been referred by police to the Crown Prosecution Service, with four successful prosecutions.
Figures released last year by Dignitas – the non-profit organization that helps patients with ‘self-determined end of life’ – showed that there were 1,528 members from Britain at the end of 2022.
This is up from 821 in 2012.
Around 33 people from Britain received assisted death from Dignitas in 2022 – an increase from 23 people the year before.