Legalising assisted dying could 'end such needless suffering', Dame Joan said (Image: Phil Harris)
The assisted dying vote in Parliament next month will be “a chance to end such needless suffering”, Dame Joan Bakewell has said.
Writing in the Radio Times, the 91-year-old veteran broadcaster argues that we should ”think more about death” and plan for the inevitable.
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And she reveals that when she presented the BBC Radio 4 series We Need to Talk About Death in 2016, “the episode I wanted to make on assisted dying was vetoed”.
The panel discussion series instead featured episodes on what happens in the final days and hours of life, how to ensure your wishes are known and respected, and what happens to our digital assets after death.
Reflecting on assisted dying, Dame Joan says: “As I write, MPs have been told they will have a free vote on a Bill to give terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to choose to end their life (Scotland is also considering changes to the law).
READ MORE: Poll shows majority support for assisted dying as date set for MPs' vote
Dame Joan shared her views on death in the Radio Times (Image: Radio Times)
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“It is just the beginning of a process but with polls showing that around two-thirds of voters in the UK support a change in the law, this is the chance to end such needless suffering.
“Assisted dying has entered the law in many countries including Canada, Switzerland, New Zealand and Australia, as well as Oregon, California and Washington in the US. Some 400 million people around the world have access to such a choice.”
Recent figures showed there were almost 15,000 people in England and Wales aged over 100 - more than double the number in 2002.
This makes the question of access to assisted dying “more relevant year on year”, the Labour peer says.
Dame Joan also argues that Dylan Thomas “didn’t get it quite right” when he wrote: “Do not go gentle into that good night.”
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In the poem, the speaker urges a dying parent to “rage, rage against the dying of the light”. But Dame Joan says this was “not for their benefit but for his”.
She adds: ”The passion of attachment – child for parent, brother for sister – so often overrides the neutral but compassionate concern that anyone you love might die in the greatest comfort with the greatest peace of mind.”
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An assisted dying Bill is due to be introduced to the Commons by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater on Wednesday.
It is expected to propose legalising assisted dying only for terminally ill, mentally competent adults who are nearing the end of their lives - the same change backed by the Express Give Us Our Last Rights crusade.
MPs will vote on the topic for the first time in almost a decade when the Bill has a second reading on November 29.