North Shields family's renewed calls for assisted dying ahead of parliamentary debate

Rachel Bullock has been speaking to the family of Ray Craven who travelled to Switzerland to end his life

A Tyneside family has renewed its calls for the UK government to allow assisted dying ahead of a bill being heard in Parliament.

Naomi Craven travelled to Switzerland with her father Ray Craven, from North Shields, to end his life aged 70, following his battle with Motor Neurone Disease.

Next week, a bill which would allow terminally ill adults to lawfully end their own lives will be debated in the House of Lords.

Currently, under UK law it is illegal to assist someone's death, including aiding someone to leave the UK in order to visit an assisted dying clinic.

Naomi told ITV Tyne Tees that the UK law took her father's right to choose how and where to die away from him.

"He was robbed of having time with his family, time with his friends, and I just don't think that's right.

"The journey to Switzerland was absolutely awful.

"You're travelling with somebody who is very, very ill and is leaving their home for the last time.

"My dad was very much a Geordie, he always wanted to to live out his days in Newcastle."

Asked whether or not breaking the law to help her father had phased her Naomi replied: "Absolutely, it's obviously something that you worry about.

"But when it's your family member in that sort of position, I think that you would do whatever you needed to do is support them."

The exact details of the controversial assisted dying bill are not yet fully known but it is understood that it will allow terminally ill patients who have six months or less to live the right to medical help to end their life.

However, opponents to the bill worry it poses serious risks to vulnerable people.

The former Paralympic gold medalist and a crossbencher in the House of Lords, Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson opposes the bill.

She said: "I know people say it's all given the choice and that's really important but there are also going to be a lot of people who feel that they have no choice but to end their lives.

"We know that doctors and even the police are not good at spotting coercive control."

The Stockton-based peer worries that relatives could coerce vulnerable individuals into assisted dying, adding: "Where there's a will there's a relative."

Dr Jonathan Romain, who supports the bill, said: "The bill is going to be really safe in terms of ensuring that everything is done properly.

"Frankly, I wouldn't support it otherwise, but still, they have to be terminally ill, they have to be mentally competent and it also has to be of their own free will.

"One of the ways that is ensured is by being interviewed by two doctors separately.

"If you are dying in agony and you want to let go, then I think people should have that option."

The bill will be introduced in Parliament on 16 October, and MPs will vote on it in the coming months.

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