Hampshire man feared being arrested after going with his mum to Dignitas so she could end her life

  • Watch a video report by ITV News Meridian's Mel Bloor

A man who went with his mother to Dignitas so she could end her life says he feared being arrested.

Susan Spicer from Fleet was suffering from multiple sclerosis and breast cancer when she made the decision in 2016.

Her son, Tom Beagley-Spicer, is one of a number of campaigners calling for the Government to legalise assisted death in this country.

"Mum travelled hundreds of miles, spent £12,000 in lies, in secret without all her friends and family around her, without being able to celebrate her life at that point when we were going to lose her", said Tom.

Tom Beagley-Spicer and his mother Susan Credit:

"I can't sit there and say you can't do this, you're my mum I can only go 'Ok I will support you' and everything else comes afterwards, that fear of the prosecution, the secrets, the lies and it just meant that we went on a very underground journey.

"We are putting so many people in really vulnerable places already into such a box that says you have to suffer, why?"

  • Assisted dying or assisted suicide is legal in at least 27 jurisdictions worldwide

It became legal in Canada in 2015, the Netherlands in 2001, and Oregon in the US in 1994.

In France, a national debate is due to take place with a view to legalising assisted dying by the end of 2023, and the topic is being examined in Ireland later this year.

Groups against any changes here want there to be a greater focus on alternatives instead.

Alistair Thompson of Care Not Killing said, "I would say what we should be doing is making sure we have the right palliative and social care for everybody.

"And where there have been problems, it's around access and funding and that's what we really need to be sorting out in this country."

Policing Minister Kit Malthouse Credit: PA

Conservative MP Kit Malthouse, who sits All Party Parliamentary Group for Choice at the End of Life, is supporting the calls for reform,

"The Select Committee has an important role to play in the assisted dying debate in Parliament.

"For too long our debates have generated a great deal of heat and not enough light, but this is an opportunity for my colleagues on the Committee to take a different approach.

"Key to that will be understanding how dying people feel about the state of the current law, and hearing from those whose loved ones did not have the choice that they so deserved.

"The Committee could perform a great service and provide leadership to MPs, giving us a route map to reform our laws so that they work well for the whole of society."