Esther Rantzen urges for radical change on assisted dying law: ‘We’re so close now!’

Terminally ill Dame Esther Rantzen has urged the British people to help her achieve long-awaited assisted dying reform, saying: “We’re so close now.”

The campaigner, who has stage 4 lung cancer, is spearheading our push to demand MPs debate an issue that could affect every family in the UK.

Lawmakers will be forced to act if her petition – submitted alongside this newspaper and charity Dignity in Dying – attracts 100,000 signatures. In less than one month 85,000 have already pledged their support.

Issuing a heartfelt appeal grandmother-of-five Dame Esther, 83, diagnosed last January, said: “Must terminally ill patients travel alone to Switzerland to obtain the gentle, peaceful death we would surely all choose? Our best hope is that our petition reaches its goal of 100,000 signatures which will ensure it is debated in Parliament. We are so close now.”

Our campaign has the backing of a slew of high-profile celebrity supporters, including broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby, Dame Jenni Murray, Prue Leith and Ruth Davidson.

On Monday, historian and royal biographer Jonathan, 79, host of Any Questions? on Radio 4, laid bare his brother Nicholas’s plight with Motor neurone disease which has left him mute and unable to eat.

Our interview with the broadcasting legend moved former That’s Life! host Dame Esther to tears, reinforcing her view that existing “cruel and outdated” laws need to be changed.

Jonathan, who visited his brother at his Devon home at the weekend, told the Daily Express: “Despite the great efforts of the Motor Neurone Disease Association, his NHS team and his own extraordinary resolve, every day is a terrible endurance test for him. He has not an ounce of self-pity but wants readers to know what it is really like. So, writing on a pad (Nicholas can still use his hands) he said ‘I can’t speak, I can’t taste, I am fed through a tube into my stomach, I can’t control my bowels, the drugs make it impossible for me to read, I choke, and some days every breath is a terrible effort. If my saying this assists the cause of Dignity In Dying, I am glad to be of use’.”

Dame Esther said: “I was deeply, deeply moved by the incredibly courageous sculptor Nicholas Dimbleby who wrote describing how his body is being ravaged by MND.

“It is clear that he only made this agonisingly personal statement because, as he said, he wants to assist the cause of assisted dying. He deserves our support, a change in our current, cruel law would surely be the legacy his courage deserves.

“Jonathan and Nicholas Dimbleby are such devoted brothers, the last thing they want is for Nicholas’s suffering to become an indelible memory for those who love him. Nor do I when my time comes. If you are undecided, read Jonathan and Nicholas’s words. And please sign your name. For the sake of all those who are forced by our current law to suffer.”

Helping someone die is punishable with a 14-year jail term a scandal that convinced ChildLine and The Silver Line founder to sign up to Swiss suicide clinic Dignitas.

Yet the prohibitive costs of doing so – at least £10,000 – has made the right to die impecunious for those living with terminal illnesses but without the means to end their suffering.

Her plight is shared by countless individuals and their families across Britain, many of whom have contacted her to lend their love and support.

Dame Esther said: “I cannot express how deeply I have been moved by the letters I have received, and the extraordinary response to our petition.

“I have been incredibly inspired by the compassion and support I have received. Not only from those who share my view, and describe their experience of losing someone they love, memories which must cause them so much pain to share, but they do so because they know their evidence proves how inhumane the current law can be.

“So thank you to the people in public life who have joined our campaign. And most of all, thank you to all the people, a miraculous 85,000 of you who have already signed the petition.

“We are calling for the right for all of us to choose. It’s our life, it should be our choice.”

MPs last voted on assisted dying in 2015 but refused to amend the Coroners and Justice Act which outlaws the practice as murder or manslaughter.

Mum-of-three Dame Esther lost her beloved husband Desmond Wilcox to heart disease in 2000.

Their daughter Rebecca Wilcox, 43, said: ““Mum has had such a life, such a legacy. Even as a mother, let alone as the campaigning broadcaster that she’s known as, so just to remember her in pain and unhappiness would be awful. A waste. Such a waste.

“Mum is my person. I do not want to live without her. I will have to live without her and please, please don’t make it worse for me by accusing me of murdering her and making me go through what would be a terrifying legal process.”

Jonathan said: “There is a shift and I think we are at a moment of real change. I hope all political parties, in the run-up to a general election, would allow MPs to vote feely on the principle of the right to die. No party should shy away from that, because to do so would be wrong and gutless.”

Ms Davidson, 45, the former leader of the Scottish Conservative Party, said: “I’ve happily signed and I encourage fellow politicians to step up to the plate. It is now time to change the law to help people have a better death. It is time to change the law to let people have more control over end of life decisions, up to and including how and where we die, who is there and the pain relief and treatment options we choose.

“We need all political parties to include a manifesto commitment to parliamentary time on this issue and a free vote for each member. And we need to have a proper conversation about this most difficult of issues.”

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: “The public support for the legalisation of assisted dying is stronger than ever. Dame Esther is clearly galvanising the nation to make their voices heard. They know, many all too well, that as long as we do not change the law, dying people will continue to suffer, forced to choose between suffering potentially painful deaths, suicide or dying lonely deaths hundreds of miles away in Switzerland. Now the Government must listen.”

* To sign our petition visit https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/653593