Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has known as the UK’s present assisted dying regulation “psychopathic” after his terminally ailing 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 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 mentioned in a movie launched after her dying on the age of 53 known as The Final Request.
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Ms 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 mentioned 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 below strict controls.
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Dave Rowntree. Pic: Dave Hogan/Hogan Media/Shutterstock
The Parklife musician mentioned the selection of criminalisation or a gradual and uncomfortable dying was “brutal” and he was “bloody angry” in regards to 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 utterly brutal for the ill person because anyone they tell is potentially at risk of arrest, so they have to creep around like a criminal.
“Not solely that, however when the time comes, in the event that they do determine to die with dignity and finish their life at a time of their selecting, and in a approach of their selecting, they should do it unsupported by anybody, on their very own, not capable of maintain anybody’s hand, not capable of hug any person and say goodbye.”
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Pics: Household handout
Rowntree supplied to journey with Marra to Switzerland
Rowntree mentioned he had supplied to go to Switzerland with Ms Marra, after attempting to influence her of what he thought-about a extra comfy dying in her residence 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 regulation.
Though the complete textual content has not but been printed, a second studying is scheduled for 29 November of a non-public member’s invoice that will enable terminally ailing adults to request and be supplied with help to finish their very own lives – offering sure safeguards and protections are met.
When it’s ultimately put earlier than MPs, probably subsequent yr, they are going to be given a free vote, that means they’ll observe their conscience slightly than the social gathering whip.
Dame Esther Rantzen and broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby have backed the marketing campaign calling for a change within the regulation.
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Pics: Household handout
‘That is psychopathic’
Rowntree, whose father John had bowel most cancers and died earlier this yr, mentioned of the present regulation: “It is the system washing its hands of difficult problems in a way that I can’t stomach.
“That is the entire level of the state. The state can declare conflict… and if the state is not going to take these sort of tough choices, 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.
