Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has referred to as the UK’s present assisted dying regulation “psychopathic” after his terminally sick ex-wife travelled to Dignitas in Switzerland to die alone.
The 60-year-old supported former music business 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 analysis.
She made the choice as a result of the “pain and suffering can become unbearable”, she stated in a movie launched after her dying on the age of 53 referred to as The Final Request.
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0:51Ms Marra made a video to be launched after her dying
Rowntree instructed The Guardian the present authorized system confirmed “absolutely no empathy for the sufferer”.
He stated he was becoming a member of requires a change within the regulation forward of the second studying later this month of a invoice proposing the legalisation of assisted dying in England and Wales underneath strict controls.
Picture:Dave Rowntree. Pic: Dave Hogan/Hogan Media/Shutterstock
The Parklife musician stated the selection of criminalisation or a gradual and uncomfortable dying was “brutal” and he was “bloody angry” concerning the state of affairs.
“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 instructed the paper.
“It’s completely brutal for the sick individual as a result of anybody they inform is doubtlessly prone to arrest, in order that they need to 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.”
Picture:Pics: Household handout
Rowntree provided to journey with Marra to Switzerland
Rowntree stated he had provided to go to Switzerland with Ms Marra, after attempting to influence her of what he thought of a extra comfy dying in her dwelling in London, however she stated 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 regulation.
Though the complete textual content has not but been printed, a second studying is scheduled for 29 November of a personal member’s invoice that may permit terminally sick 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, which means they will observe their conscience moderately than the occasion whip.
Dame Esther Rantzen and broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby have backed the marketing campaign calling for a change within the regulation.
Picture:Pics: Household handout
‘This is psychopathic’
Rowntree, whose father John had bowel most cancers and died earlier this yr, stated of the present regulation: “It’s the system washing its palms of inauspicious issues in a method that I can’t abdomen.
“That’s the entire level of the state. The state can declare conflict… and if the state isn’t going to take these type 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 regulation states an individual might face 14 years in jail for accompanying their family members to Dignitas, however Crown Prosecution Service steering says they’re “unlikely” to be prosecuted.
