Sky News aired a “very sad” update on the Assisted Dying bill, with Dame Esther Rantzen calling in to the show.
Dame Esther Rantzen called in to Sky News (Image: Getty)
Sky News was interrupted today for a breaking news alert, as Dame Esther Rantzen called into the show with a “very sad” update. The ChildLine founder, 85, is battling terminal lung cancer which has spread, with her life-preserving drugs sadly not being effective any longer. Dame Esther intends to travel to a Swiss clinic for assisted dying, but can’t take her family with her.
She had been a staunch supporter of the British Assisted Dying bill – but now the news that it might not pass through the House of Lords has left her devastated. Sky projected a breaking banner which read: “Sky News understands assisted dying bill likely to fail,” and cut to Dame Esther speaking to them on the phone.
The broadcaster said: “Well, this is absolute blatant sabotage. This is a handful of peers putting down 1,200 amendments – not to scrutinise the bill, which is their job, but to block it.
“That’s what they wanted. A few peers, for their own reasons, have decided they’re going to stop this going through Parliament. And the only way to stop them would be to invoke the Parliament Act, which has happened before, or get rid of the House of Lords. They’re clearly not fit for purpose.”
Asked how it makes her feel, Dame Esther said: “Well, it makes me very sad, because so many other countries around the world – not least Australia, not least now the Isle of Man and Jersey – have come to the same sensible, proper conclusion.
“Which is if you are terminally ill and an adult and fully competent to make your own decisions, you should have the right to die painlessly and in dignity if life becomes unbearable.
Sky News halted for a breaking alert (Image: Sky News)
“We know that palliative care doesn’t always protect people from pain or from horrible symptoms such as fecal vomiting, which would be an awful memory for my family to have, speaking as somebody who is terminally ill.
“Fortunately, I have the funds to go to Zurich and get Dignitas to help me […] but I can’t take my family with me, I can’t allow them to know when I’m going, because if I do under the current criminal law, they will be investigated by the police, suspected of murdering me, which is the last thing they need.”
