Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has referred to as the UK’s present assisted dying legislation “psychopathic” after his terminally unwell ex-wife travelled to Dignitas in Switzerland to die alone.
The 60-year-old supported former music trade and charity sector employee Paola Marra – who he married within the Nineteen Nineties – as she battled breast and bowel most cancers earlier than she flew alone to Zurich in March following a terminal prognosis.
She made the choice as a result of the “pain and suffering can become unbearable”, she mentioned in a movie launched after her loss of life on the age of 53 referred to as The Final Request.
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Rowntree informed The Guardian the present authorized system confirmed “absolutely no empathy for the sufferer”.
He mentioned he was becoming a member of requires a change within the legislation forward of the second studying later this month of a invoice proposing the legalisation of assisted dying in England and Wales underneath strict controls.
Dave Rowntree. Pic: Dave Hogan/Hogan Media/Shutterstock
The Parklife musician mentioned the selection of criminalisation or a gradual and uncomfortable loss of life was “brutal” and he was “bloody angry” concerning the scenario.
“If you’re considering taking your own life, you are to do it isolated and alone, and anyone that is even suspected of helping in any material way can be arrested [and] you can get 14 years in jail,” he informed the paper.
“It’s completely brutal for the unwell particular person as a result of anybody they inform is probably prone to arrest, so that they must creep round like a prison.
“Not only that, but when the time comes, if they do decide to die with dignity and end their life at a time of their choosing, and in a way of their choosing, they have to do it unsupported by anyone, on their own, not able to hold anyone’s hand, not able to hug somebody and say goodbye.”
Pics: Household handout
Rowntree supplied to journey with Marra to Switzerland
Rowntree mentioned he had supplied to go to Switzerland with Ms Marra, after making an attempt to influence her of what he thought of a extra snug loss of life in her house in London, however she mentioned no.
She modified her thoughts for a time earlier than later deciding to die alone, and pushed him to again the marketing campaign to alter the assisted dying legislation.
Though the total textual content has not but been revealed, a second studying is scheduled for 29 November of a non-public member’s invoice that might enable terminally unwell adults to request and be supplied with help to finish their very own lives – offering sure safeguards and protections are met.
When it’s finally put earlier than MPs, probably subsequent yr, they are going to be given a free vote, that means they will comply with their conscience quite than the celebration whip.
Dame Esther Rantzen and broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby have backed the marketing campaign calling for a change within the legislation.
Pics: Household handout
‘This is psychopathic’
Rowntree, whose father John had bowel most cancers and died earlier this yr, mentioned of the present legislation: “It’s the system washing its arms of inauspicious issues in a means that I can’t abdomen.
“That’s the entire level of the state. The state can declare warfare… and if the state isn’t going to take these sort of tough selections, what the f*** is the purpose in having the state?
“This is psychopathic, where we are now, because the whole point of this [should be] to try to make things easier for the real victim in this – the terminally ill person.”
The legislation states an individual might face 14 years in jail for accompanying their family members to Dignitas, however Crown Prosecution Service steerage says they’re “unlikely” to be prosecuted.
