Liverpool man who watched mum die in agony says rules on assisted dying need to change

Video Report by ITV Granada Reports journalist Tasha Kacheri

Assisted dying is a topic that has been passionately debated across the country for years, but there is still no legislation in place.

The Health and Social Care bill is currently being discussed in The House of Lords and there has been an amendment that is being proposed called the Lord Forsyth amendment.

Critics say it is a way to shoe horn assisted suicide into law but supporters say you cannot talk about social care without talking about how people should die - and they want them to die with dignity.Dave Karellen, from Liverpool, thinks that the law needs to be changed to allow people to have the choice to die the way they want to.

He has been campaigning for this law change since his mum Julie died from cancer in 2017 just weeks before her 60th birthday.The 32-year-old told our reporter Tasha Kacheri that near the end of her life, Julie had begged him and the rest of her family to do whatever they could to make the pain stop.

Dave said that he was called to the hospice and was told that Julie would pass away quickly, but she held on for another 10 days in excruciating pain without the ability to eat or drink.

The Lord Forsyth amendment would force the gov to introduce assisted dying legislation.

There is no guarantee that this amendment will pass and there are many who don't agree with Dave's stance on the matter.

Dr Kevin Yuill representing Not Dead Yet UK, the leading organisation of disabled people campaigning against legalisation said that assisted dying is the same as suicide and he believes it's not right even at the end of someone's life.

He said: "With good palliative care people can spend the last six months of their lives living well without pain."

But Dave said even though the hospice was amazing and did everything they could to help his mum, palliative care wasn't enough for her as the pain got so bad that nothing could help.The group Dignity in Dying campaign for dying people with six months or less to live, to be given the option to control their death. They say more and more people are going abroad to try to end their lives or taking measures into the own hands and committing suicide.

Chief Executive Sarah Wootton said: "What this would mean for dying people is that they know they've got the option of hastening an unbearable death.

"People, often they are not worried about dying but they're worried about how they are going to exit this life and the process they will actually leave by".

For Dave it's all about other families, he said: "I don't want families to suffer like this as well where people are put in situations where they feel they're not doing everything possible to help a loved one at the end of their life."