Esther Rantzen urges MPs to vote on ‘vital life and death issue’

Esther Rantzen, whose terminal cancer diagnosis led her to campaign for the legalisation of assisted dying, has issued an impassioned plea to MPs to vote this week on a “vital life and death issue”.

The television personality told MPs “my time is running out” but the issue was one “the public care desperately about”.

Rantzen, who has stage 4 lung cancer, revealed almost a year ago that she wanted to be able to die at a time of her own choosing surrounded by loved ones, galvanising a national debate about assisted dying.

In the first Westminster vote on the issue in nearly a decade, MPs will decide on Friday whether England and Wales should join other jurisdictions including 10 US states, most of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and six countries in Europe in legalising assisted dying.

Scotland, the Isle of Man and Jersey are expected to legislate for change in the next couple of years.

MPs at Westminster have been given a free vote on the issue, meaning they can vote according to conscience. The outcome is unpredictable, with many MPs undecided or undeclared.

Esther Rantzen’s daughter Rebecca Wilcox (left) with the MP Kim Leadbeater in Parliament Square, London. Photograph: Michael Leckie/PA

In her letter to all 650 MPs, Rantzen urges them to listen to Friday’s debate and to vote, whatever their view. “This is such a vital life and death issue, one that we the public care desperately about, so it is only right that as many MPs as possible listen to the arguments for and against and make up your own minds, according to your own conscience, your personal thoughts and feelings.”

She adds: “This bill will never apply to me as I have stage 4 lung cancer and my time is running out. But I am fortunate to have the choice of an assisted death in Dignitas in Switzerland.”

Rantzen points out that she may have to travel to Zurich alone in order to protect her family from prosecution, and that many terminally ill Britons cannot afford the £15,000 required for an assisted death at Dignitas.

Many more terminally ill people are forced to suffer against their wishes despite the best care, or to take matters into their own hands at home, she says. “I have received so many messages from people who have been traumatised by having to experience their loved ones’ suffering,” she adds.

Her letter highlights key evidence from a parliamentary committee’s 14-month inquiry that concluded assisted dying had not damaged palliative care where it is legal, and that in many jurisdictions it had strengthened it.

Rantzen tells MPs that the “tragic truth” is that even with the best possible palliative care, some terminally ill people continue to suffer.

She thanks Kim Leadbeater for proposing the bill and “the many MPs who have been meeting and consulting their constituents to hear their views and experiences”.

Sarah Wootton, the chief executive of Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for a change in the law, said: “Esther has called this her final campaign, and she has undoubtedly helped drive the need for change up the political agenda. The fight for greater choice at the end of life is a fitting addition to her legacy of campaigning for people’s rights.

“Parliament has a historic opportunity to end the injustice of the ban on assisted dying and introduce new protections for dying people and for us all. People who want and need choice as they die, loved ones who have witnessed the devastation caused when choice is denied, and the British public are united in calling on MPs to vote for compassion, for protection, for dignity.”