Campaigners were in Parliament Square, where they celebrated with fellow supporters, when the historic bill was narrowly passed by MPs with a margin of 23 votes on Friday afternoon
Campaigners in support of the assisted dying bill, including many heartbreakingly affected by the issue, have spoken of their joy, and relief, as it was passed by MPs today, by a margin of 23 votes.
They include a former NHS worker who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, a terminally ill mum who had planned to starve herself to death, the son of a terminally ill man who tragically took his own life after feeling he had been left with no other option, and the husband of a woman, who was forced to travel to Switzerland to die after multiple sclerosis left her suffering excruciating pain.
Mum-of-three Jenny Carruthers, who worked in the NHS before retiring due to ill health, was diagnosed with terminal cancer four years ago. Her partner Gypie Mayo, a guitarist and songwriter in rock band Dr. Feelgood, also died in agony aged 62 in 2013 after being given a terminal liver cancer diagnosis.
Wiping away tears after the vote, she told the Mirror: “I feel relieved. It’s amazing… to actually see justice. It’s been a long time coming. It means that if I need to find some peace I will be able to do so legally and that means the world to me and my family.”
Jenny, from Bath, Somerset, was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer in 2021. She said: “My terminal cancer is in my bones everywhere. I watched my partner, who died of liver cancer, die screaming in agony so I’ve got a pretty good idea of where I’m headed.
“My children had to hear him. I want it to be different for me so that they don’t have to hear that.” Speaking about her children, now aged 21, 24 and 26, Jenny said: “I don’t want them to think about me screaming. I want them to be able to hold my hand and I want peace and I want them to feel they helped me.
“They absolutely support me. They understand that dying in agony for a human being is intolerable. If I let my dog suffer in the way that my partner suffered, I would be prosecuted.”
Christie Arntsen, 57, has also been diagnosed with incurable breast cancer and had been making plans to starve herself to death if the bill hadn’t gone through rather than suffer excruciating pain in her final days. Reacting to the vote, she said: “I’ve got a grin ear-to-ear. This is a landmark moment and I’m very glad to have been part of this moment.
“I can’t quite believe this has happened – it’s absolutely amazing. The MPs have listened to people and they have progressed with the way society is. We need to look after dying people and give them the choice. I feel like it’s a change for everyone and I’m so glad that people in the future hopefully won’t have to feel like I do and about dying all the time.”
Speaking about how her diagnosis had affected her, Christie, from Oxford, said: “As soon as I was diagnosed, I immediately started thinking about the end of my life and it was a real problem for me that we didn’t have choice.
“When I told my children that there was no choice, they couldn’t believe it. They were shocked that this country wouldn’t give people that opportunity. We all campaign and we’ve been doing it a long time.”
Asked what she would say to anyone who still has reservations about the bill, including counter-protesters standing alongside her in Parliament Square, she said: “I understand everybody has different points of view and I understand that their view is not the same as ours.
“But most of the problems that they are arguing would not take place. If you are disabled, you are not entitled to use this bill. If you are disabled and you have a terminal illness, that’s a different matter. But they don’t appear to be understanding that this is a very limited bill that will only apply to people who are dying anyway.”
Video post production worker Anil Douglas, 36, appeared emotional after hearing the bill had been passed. He was holding a placard with a picture of himself and his dad Ian, a bond analyst, who took his own life at home in February 2019 after suffering from a terminal illness.
Tragically, Anil found him after he carried out his secret plan. He said: “My father, Ian, took his own life in February 2019. He suffered from secondary progressive multiple sclerosis and was terminally ill.
“I came home and I found him still alive. I later discovered it was his third attempt. He was severely disabled towards the end of his life and suffered an enormous amount. It’s hard to overstate just how much.
“His death, as I look back on it now, was incredibly lonely, dangerous, and he was forced to take lonely and dangerous decisions and go behind closed doors as a result of the status quo.”
Anil admitted he and his father struggled to discuss the idea of death with each other and he hadn’t known about his plan to end his own life. He said: “It’s hard to overstate how different it could have been. He wanted to exercise a degree of choice and independence at the end of his life in his own way. Unfortunately he had to do that in isolation.
“The bad death of a loved one does scar you for the rest of your life and I have to carry that grief and trauma around with me every day.”
Anil, from Deptford, south London, described feeling both joy and relief after MPs voted the bill through. He said: “That moment will stay with me forever. MPs have voted for hope, for a safer, more compassionate, safer future.
“This legislation is a signal to do better and that means the world to me right now. My dad always believed the country could do better and he never really lost his faith in that and today it actually has.”
Anil added: “I think he would have been very proud of me, I hope, and relieved and overjoyed and hopeful, like me. He would have been optimistic that the future looks a lot brighter than the world in which he was forced to do what he did.”
Retired IT worker Dave Sowry, 68, accompanied his wife Christy, who was suffering from debilitating multiple sclerosis but hadn’t been given a terminal diagnosis, to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland in 2022. He joined protesters in Parliament Square, where he was holding a placard with the message: “Why did my wife have to go to Switzerland to die? Legalise assisted dying”.
He said: “I accompanied my wife, Christy, to Dignitas in September 2022. She had MS and epilepsy and lots of other problems. She was very disabled.
Dave, from Acton, west London, said Christy felt forced to keep her decision secret for fear she would be prevented from travelling, putting stress on her in her final days. He said: “If she had been able to do it here, then it would have made a huge difference. She would probably have left it a bit later.
“The whole stress of those six or seven months certainly made her condition worse at a much faster rate than it would otherwise have done. So she might well have wanted to keep living for much longer than she did.”
Reacting to the vote, Dave said: “My first reaction is one of relief because I think the bill as it is will help an awful of people. I did shed a few tears. It’s also bittersweet for me personally because my wife Christy wouldn’t have been helped by this bill, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not delighted that it has passed.”