'Let him go' Poole man says terminally ill father should be able to choose to end his life

A man from Poole in Dorset says his terminally-ill father should be allowed to die with dignity.

Matt Rowe has spoken out amid the ongoing debate over the assisted dying bill, which would give people in certain circumstances the right to die at a time of their choosing.

The debate and first vote on the bill this week will mark the first time the issue has been voted on in the Commons in almost a decade.

Mr Rowe's father Andy, was diagnosed with a brain tumour in July, and has since been suffering with seizures and had two strokes.

• Matt Rowe

Although he is receiving end of life care, Matt says his dad wants to choose when he dies.

"He said 'I'd like everyone just to be able to come up here, say their goodbyes - I'll take the tablet and then everyone can just start moving on'," Matt said.

"Start the grieving process, get over it and just crack on as normal.

"If he wants to go, let him go, it's as clear cut as that."

Helen Skelton from Brighton who was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer, says those who are living in pain deserve the right to have a peaceful and loving death with their family.

Helen was diagnosed with breast cancer in September 2020. Despite being recommended for a mastectomy, doctors discovered that her cancer had already spread to her spine.

Helen has been given three to five years but says she supports assisted dying.

Speaking to ITV Meridian Helen said: "I've always supported assisted dying - I think it's a really sensitive issue.

"It's really important that great care is taken over it, and I'm also a supporter of palliative care, and I hope that my death can be a peaceful one facilitated by good palliative care.

However, I've always known, and I know even more now from the stories that I've heard, that even the best palliative care just isn't good enough for some people.

"Some people are dying really, really horrific deaths, and their families are having to bear the trauma that they've witnessed of that, and I think that that is cruel and humane in a society like ours.

"I think that that small number of people really deserve the right to manage and control and have a peaceful and loving death with their family, rather than a horrific, cruel and traumatic one."

• Helen Skelton

Not everyone with a terminal illness would be eligible, if the bill were to be passed on Friday.

Only adults who are expected to die within six months and who have been resident in England and Wales and registered with a GP for at least 12 months would be eligible.

They must also have the mental capacity to make a choice about the end of their life and be deemed to have expressed a clear, settled and informed wish – free from coercion or pressure – to end their life.

MPs have spent weeks going through the evidence before the vote.

Currently, ITV News understands 194 MPs are so far planning to vote for it, 146 plan to vote against it, 122 remain undecided and 24 are due to abstain.

• ITV Meridian political correspondent Kit Bradshaw has been speaking to MPs about their views on the Assisted Dying bill.

The Bishop of Oxford believes life is a gift from God that should never be taken.

Speaking to ITV Meridian's Natalie Verney, The Rt Rev Dr Steven Croft said: "I'm really pleased that we're having the debate on assisted dying and talking about death and dying, which we don't do as a society enough.

"I am personally opposed to the particular bill that's coming to Parliament on Friday. I think the safeguards in this particular bill need to be much, much stronger and tested more robustly before it's ready to become law.

"I think I'm looking carefully at the jurisdictions which have introduced assisted suicide and the ways in which the criteria have broadened. The safeguards have been relaxed, often through legal challenges in themselves, and what begins as a very limited exercise of the right to assisted suicide, gradually spreads and involves more and more people."

• The Rt Rev Dr Steven Croft, Bishop of Oxford speaking to Natalie Verney

Asked about specific circumstances where it could affect patents' families, The Rt Rev Dr Steven Croft added: "The core issue of how we help people to have a good death, which is pain free and as pain free as possible, for me, I think the answer to that is greater investment in palliative care.

"I think the human rights of the individuals involved have got to be balanced against the rights and the good of the whole of society, and if you listen to the groups who are advocating on behalf of the disabled and those who don't want to be a burden at the end of life and subject to unfair pressure, I think all of those people have rights too.

"And framing a law is about balancing different competing rights across the whole of our society.

"I think my own personal view is rooted in my position of Christian faith and the sacred nature of life, but that doesn't mean to say that a particular legislation couldn't be improved if it was the agreed will of Parliament and the people, then I would be committed to working for the kind of legislation which was least damaging to individuals and to the whole of our society and our attitude to life and death."

Assisted dying is currently banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

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