Assisted dying: Dignified death or unacceptable risk

On Friday, MPs will vote on the second reading of a private member’s bill which, if passed, will allow terminally ill patients to request assistance to die.

Critics fear it will mean elderly and vulnerable patients facing pressure to end their lives, though supporters of the bill say it contains protections against coercion.

Naomi Craven, from North Shields, says the experience of her father, Ray, illustrates why the law needs to change.

The 70-year-old retired college lecturer started struggling to eat and speak. In 2021, he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease, which is rapidly progressing and ultimately fatal.

Ms Craven says her father would have much preferred to have had an assisted death in the UK but, under the current law, that was not possible and he had to travel to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland, accompanied by his wife and daughter.

“For him at that point it was very, very clear that, if he wanted a dignified death in a way of his choosing, an assisted death would be very much the option he wanted,” she says.