Assisted dying should be about relieving suffering – ex-judge with Parkinson’s
Assisted dying should be about relieving suffering – ex-judge with Parkinson’s
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Terminal illness should be redefined to focus on suffering, a retired High Court judge said as he told how he fears he will have to go to Dignitas rather than endure a “poor death” in the UK with Parkinson’s disease. Sir Nicholas Mostyn told MPs the assisted dying Bill, which is currently making its way through Parliament, “is not ever going to provide an assisted death for me”.
The co-presenter of the Movers And Shakers podcast, about life with Parkinson’s and which has previously featured fellow sufferer former Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, addressed MPs who are scrutinising the proposed law. The Bill could see terminally ill adults in England and Wales with under six months to live legally allowed to end their lives, subject to approval by two doctors and a High Court judge.
But as it stands it does not cover intolerable or unbearable suffering, something many campaigners have called for. Sir Nicholas said: “It’s been suggested I want to expand the definition of terminal illness. I don’t want to expand it. I want to redefine it so that it is more appropriately focused, in my opinion, on what this Bill should be about, which is the relief of suffering.
“That is what I believe this Bill should be about. And you should get permission to have an assisted death if you are suffering intolerably within five months of death or seven months of death. There shouldn’t be this arbitrary line.”. The former judge added that he does not believe a new law should be open to people “who aren’t suffering but who happen to have a six-month life expectancy”.
