A man who has suffered the loss of his dad, brother and sister is fighting for a change in the law on assisted dying as he too fears he will have a ‘tortuous’ death
Pat Malone, 72, has asked opponents of assisted dying whether they want him to be “tortured to death” like his father was.
The retired journalist from Cornwall said he and his siblings watched their dad Patrick, 85, in “hideous pain” and “coughing up excrement” from pancreatic cancer in 1998.
Since then his brother Dr Michael Malone took his own life in 2010 at 53 when he was also dying of pancreatic cancer and wanted to avoid the suffering of his father. And in 2023 Pat’s sister Trudi Eadington, who had Motor neurone disease, went to die at Switzerland’s assisted dying clinic Dignitas aged 71.
He said: “Both my father and he had pancreatic cancer. And of course, this is my worry now that there’s a genetic link here. There’s a familial predisposition to this. If I get pancreatic cancer, and there’s every chance I will, it would give me enormous peace of mind to know that I could ask for help at the end to cut short what my father… I mean, why would you deny me that? Why would you insist that I’d be tortured to death?”
Pat said his brother, who was a science lecturer, asked his wife Vicky to hold his hand while he took his own life after being “tormented” by his pain. She was later subject to an eight-month police investigation along with their daughter Sophie, who was in the house at the time, over collusion. Assisted dying is currently against the law in England and Wales, carrying a maximum jail sentence of 14 years.
Pat also described trying to persuade his sister Trudi not to go to Dignitas and to live on through her illness like rugby player Rob Burrow, who also suffered from MND, did until his death last year. But he said his sister told him: “Look at the bright side, I’m not going to die of cancer. I’m not going to die of dementia in a (care) home. I’m going to die at the time of my choosing and I’m going to die painlessly and with dignity. And above all, I’m not going to die like my father.” He added: “It’s hard to argue with that. ”
Pat last night sent a letter to members of the assisted dying bill committee, which was signed by at least 17 people, who are either terminally ill or whose loved ones have had horrible deaths or gone to Dignitas to die. It reads: “It is too late for the loved ones of many of the people who have signed this letter, but it is not too late for those who come after. You and all of the other MPs have the power to transform our lives, and indeed our deaths, for the better. Please remember our stories and have us in the forefront of your mind in the coming weeks and months.”
It comes as the Labour MP behind a push to change the law on assisted dying has defended plans to scrap High Court oversight. Kim Leadbeater has been facing a backlash over the decision to remove the need for a High Court judge to approve requests for an assisted death.
She said the bill had been strengthened by replacing it with proposals for a judge-led expert panel to sign off each case, which would include psychiatrists and social workers. It would still be led by a High Court judge or senior former judge, appointed by the Prime Minister. Permission will only be granted for an assisted death if the panel are in agreement.
But MPs opposed to the bill said the new proposals weaken safeguards. It has sparked questions over whether nervy MPs who hesitantly voted through the bill at its second reading in November will withdraw their support. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill passed with a majority of 55 votes, so only 28 MPs need to change their mind at the next vote later this year.
One MP, who wanted to remain anonymous, said: “I think serious reassurances need to be given about the robustness of this safeguard and that this new ‘judge-plus’ proposal actually strengthens protections.” They raised concerns about whether the expert panel would face the same regulation and scrutiny as practicing judges in courts do. “That needs to be cleared up to instill the same confidence in MPs who supported the bill before,” the MP added.
Lib Dem MP Layla Moran told the Mirror it will “not be until the third reading that I will make a final determination about how I will vote”. She previously voted in favour of the bill but at the time warned her concerns remained and she was reserving the right to vote against it in future. Last night Ms Moran said the expert panel including a legal chair as well as a psychiatrist and a social worker “reassures me that decisions will not be made without intense independent scrutiny”.
Ms Leadbeater has urged people to remember the “heart of what we’re trying to solve here” – inadequate laws around assisted dying that leave people suffering traumatic, painful or undignified deaths. She said: “We hear from families who have had loved ones die in horrible circumstances, take their own lives. Literally every day, somebody will stop me in the street, at the train station and say: ‘Thank you for doing this.’” The MP added: “So I think by adding these extra safeguards, adding the extra multidisciplinary expertise, all headed by a High Court judge, that is a real improvement to the Bill.”
She is proposing the change after last month hearing expert evidence on the bill from 50 witnesses. But Labour MP Dame Meg Hillier said the presentation of evidence to the bill’s committee was “one-sided”. She said on Monday: “There was a lot of expert evidence given in the witness sessions for the Bill, but none of the witnesses had expertise of domestic abuse or coercive control against women and girls, and as you know one of my big concerns is that people could be coerced into doing this.
“And there were no witnesses from jurisdictions around the world where assisted dying has been introduced and they had concerns to raise because actually if you are trying to make good law you need to know where the flaws are where that law has been put in place before. And the weighting was towards witnesses who were in favour, very much in favour of it.”
Gideon Salutin, senior researcher from the Social Market Foundation, said the courts backlog would have made it difficult to carry out Ms Leadbeater’s original proposal for a judge to approve each case. He said: “For those facing an illness that progresses faster than the court backlog, such a wait would amount to a rejection.”
Concerns have since been raised in the Commons about whether mental health providers have “sufficient capacity” to become involved in the assisted dying process. Care minister Stephen Kinnock declined to comment as the Government’s position on is one of “neutrality”. Elsewhere during the session in the chamber, Mr Kinnock had said: “After 14 years of Tory neglect and incompetence, we inherited a broken NHS and nowhere is that more apparent than in our mental health services”.