Northamptonshire man supports assisted dying bill following mothers death
Adam Wellesley's 83 year old mother took her own life after a bone cancer diagnosis.
A bereaved son from Northamptonshire says he believes the Assisted Dying Bill won't go far enough.
MPs are preparing to have their say on the Assisted Dying Bill.
Adam Wellesley is from Pitsford and his 83 year old mum Vicky took her own life in 2018 after a bone cancer diagnosis, having previously survived breast cancer 17 years before.
He says his mother knew how painful the end of her life was likely to become:
"When she got the news (about the bone cancer) to be perfectly honest with you, she was quite sort of well, I've had a good life. I'm not worried about dying. What I'm worried about is how I'm going to die."
The proposed law would allow terminally ill adults with under six months to live to end their lives, with approval from medical and legal professionals. Adam feels if it does go ahead, it would only be the start, as he feels it would only be fair to allow assisted dying to be open to those with progressive illnesses like motor neuron disease (MND).
Because of the way Adam's mum died, and the fact he had looked into Dignitas, an assisted dying facility in Switzerland, on her behalf, police had to look into her death and questioned himself and his sister who worked as a nurse at the time.
He didn't realise this was something only the person wanting to end their life should have done, as assisting a suicide is illegal, and the questioning compounded his families grief.
"You can understand them doing it, but it's still not a very nice thing to go through when you've just lost your mum."
"You spend your whole life making your own choices, and yet the most important choice of your life gets taken away from you."
No further action was taken but Adam feels the bill would allow his mother and others to have dignity in death:
"I've had other friends who have lost parents through and and family members through cancer. And they all say the same thing, which is that. They remember more the pain that they're that their family members were in and that last six months or a year of that terrible time than they do the good times they had over all those fifty, 60-70 years before."
Adam supports the bill and says people should be given the right to chose:
"You spend your whole life making your own choices, and yet the most important choice of your life gets taken away from you."
He'd feels an adult with a terminal illness who knows they have the right to die, would be less likely to take their own life, and could do so in a way which may give them more dignity:
Adam also feels palliative care is not going to improve greatly in the next few years and feels this is a separate issue from that of assisted dying.
Those against say the bill would pressure the terminally ill, who may feel a burden to family. Many of the amendments to the bill have focused on safe guarding this issue.
Other criticisms suggest doctors and courts would not have the capacity for the checks and balances needed.
Kemi Badenoch has called proposed assisted dying legislation a "bad bill" that will not deliver and urged Conservative MPs to follow suit.
"This has been a free vote. I'm somebody who has been previously supportive of assisted suicide.
"This bill is a bad bill. It is not going to deliver. It has not been done properly.
"This is not how we should put through legislation like this. I don't believe that the NHS and other services are ready to carry out assisted suicide, so I'll be voting no, and I hope as many Conservative MPs as possible will be supporting me in that."
A vote on the bill is due in the Commons later, with the bill heading to the House of Lords if approved.
If you need to speak to someone you can call Samaritans on 116 123, email [email protected] or find out more on the Samaritans website.