Please write to your MPs about assisted dying, Dame Esther urges Express readers

Dame Esther Rantzen has issued a heartfelt appeal for people across the country to write to their MPs in support of an assisted dying bill.

The veteran broadcaster says she "can dare to hope" for law change thanks to the overwhelming response of Express readers, who have kept the issue at the top of the political agenda this year.

Now, she is urging people to put pen to paper to show Westminster the strength of public backing ahead of a crucial vote next month.

Dame Esther, 84, who has stage four lung cancer, said: "Once again I am asking for your help. I am writing to my MP... 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."

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Labour MP Kim Leadbeater's Private Member's Bill is due to have its first reading on Wednesday, marking its formal introduction to Parliament.

Her proposal - to legalise assisted dying only for terminally ill adults who are nearing the end of life - will face a second reading in the Commons on November 29, when MPs are expected to take part in a free vote.

Writing in the Express today, Dame Esther highlights the power of campaigning and sharing personal experiences.

The Express Give Us Our Last Rights crusade has fought to change the law on assisted dying for over two years.

Our petition earlier this year gained over 200,000 signatures, triggering a Westminster Hall debate in April which saw dozens of MPs share their views on assisted dying.

Dame Esther writes: "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."

The Childline Founder adds that many new MPs have since joined Parliament, including some "too young to have witnessed the painful deaths of loved ones that so many of us have seen".

Spen Valley MP Ms Leadbeater also stressed the importance of personal stories after meeting families who have campaigned for years to change the law.

Many shared their heartbreaking experiences during a session with MPs last week, including tales of loved ones who died in agony, took their own lives when their suffering became unbearable, or travelled to Dignitas.

Ms Leadbeater said: "It has been very intense but the voices of the families who have lived experience of how the current law is not fit for purpose, those are the voices that need to be heard. Those are the voices that I will carry with me on this journey.

"I would urge any Parliamentarians to meet these families, meet the people who are living this. We have a moral obligation to them to make those changes."

Ms Leadbeater said MPs needed to take note of strong evidence - including multiple independent polls - showing that the majority of the public supports the careful introduction of assisted dying for terminally ill people.

She added: "All the evidence at the moment from certainly the work that the Express has done, from the emails in my inbox, is that the public want this law to change.

"Of course there are people who would not want to make this choice, and I fully respect that. But it's the word 'choice' that's important."

Ms Leadbeater was elected as an MP in 2021. It was five years after her sister, the area's previous MP Jo Cox, was murdered by a far-right terrorist.

She chose to take on the complex and emotional issue of assisted dying after being drawn first in the Private Member's Bill ballot last month.

Ms Leadbeater added: "I hadn't had any personal experience of it, in terms of a family member or loved one, but I knew where I stood on it.

"What I didn't realise was how much it meant to so many people. When I came top of the ballot, I thought 'this is an opportunity to make a difference'.

"I'm not the sort of person to walk away from a challenging subject. I've always had a real sense of justice and injustice and when I see something that's wrong, I feel a duty to do something about it.

"When you meet the families who have had some horrific experiences...I just feel we have got a moral duty to have the debate and, I think and I hope, also to change the law."

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of campaign group Dignity in Dying, said the bill's introduction marked "a historic day for all of those who have seen the devastation caused by the blanket ban on assisted dying".

She added: "This Bill gives dying people hope that they will live the rest of their lives with the comfort of knowing they will have a say in how they die.

"Changing the law would offer compassionate choice to those who need it most as they die, while bringing in protections and safety for everyone - measures that simply do not exist under the status quo.

"MPs must listen to the two thirds of us who want to see the law changed and deliver a law change that we can be proud of.

"As this Bill begins its journey through Parliament, they must remember all of the dying people and their families who are counting on their support."

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.