Write to your MPs about assisted dying, Dame Esther urges Express readers | Politics | News

This is wonderful news I never thought I’d be around to hear, that Parliament is going to vote on a Bill to legalise assisted dying. 

Of course there will be very careful precautions. We must protect vulnerable people.

But it means that maybe, just maybe, terminally ill people like me will be allowed to say, if life becomes unbearably agonising, that they choose to die.

And it is about choice. Not to shorten life, but to shorten death.

Although MPs will be allowed a free vote, that does not mean the vote will pass.

Even though every survey shows a majority of the public are in favour of changing the current cruel, messy law, there are MPs with personal reasons to oppose any change.

Some for religious reasons. The Archbishop of Westminster has instructed Catholics to write to their MPs to vote against the bill. Strict Muslims may do the same.

But if we don’t share their faith, should we too be denied the right to choose?

Some are healthcare professionals and feel assisted dying would be wrong for them to be involved with, but these days the British Medical Association says doctors should have the choice about this most personal issue.

Some people with disabilities fear disabled people might be pressured into ending their lives. But it would not apply to them unless they became terminally ill and asked for help – in which case should they not have the choice, too?

So please forgive me if I ask you for your help once again. I have learned that personal stories are the best evidence.

When, thanks to your support, we obtained a debate in Westminster Hall, it was crowded with MPs telling stories they had either themselves experienced, watching their loved ones suffer, or powerful stories they had learned from their constituents.

But that debate was before the election, and there are dozens of new MPs in Parliament now, some too young to have witnessed the painful deaths of loved ones that so many of us have seen.

So once again I am asking for your help. I am writing to my MP, disobeying the Archbishop’s instructions and explaining why I believe they need to vote yes.

Please could you write to yours, and explain why a vote to change the current, cruel law is so crucial, and if you have personal stories, include them/

Please explain that for some of us, time is running out. Say if they have doubts, the report by the Health Select Committee has collected proof from countries around the world that have shown that a change in the law can give terminally ill patients the hope and confidence to look forward to a good, pain-free death surrounded by those they love. 

That’s something I never expected to see in my lifetime. But now, thanks to you, I too can dare to hope.