It was just over a year ago that an intense push for the legalisation of assisted suicide began, spearheaded by Dame Esther Rantzen.

In December 2023, Rantzen said that she had joined Dignitas, the Swiss euthanasia clinic. This led to then-opposition leader Sir Keir Starmer promising a vote on the issue if he became Prime Minister. After Labour’s landslide election victory, Kim Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill passing its second reading in the House of Commons in November.

But just before the end of 2024, Dame Esther threw another spanner in the works.

She wrote an article for the Mail+ listing the “ten things that make [her] so happy to be alive”.

In it she shares how life — and her cancer treatment — has been much better than expected since her diagnosis.

She says, “When I was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in January last year [i.e. 2023], I thought that’s it, goodbye life. It turns out I was quite wrong.”

She says that the new drug she’s been on may hold back her cancer for “months, even years”. Given time to reflect, the reminder of her mortality has “intensified [her] appreciation of little things” and “made [her] unexpectedly happy”.

What does this mean for the assisted suicide bill currently being considered in Parliament?

Let’s rewind to December 2023. Ratzen told the BBC that she was looking forward to Christmas, which “she hadn’t thought she would live to see”. Not only did she make it to Christmas 2023 but over a year later, she has fought cancer and lived a life that appears to be marked by contentment and joy. And as I write, there seems to be no suggestion that she’s close to dying now either.

Dame Esther has discovered some of what many Christians and others have pointed out while opposing assisted suicide. Even when there are significant difficulties, life is worth living and death is worth fighting.

The bill that she campaigned hard for would lead to many others like her not making this discovery. It would allow people who are believed to have only six months left to live to receive help to end their lives. Many thousands could take this decision, all of whom would be denied the chance of discovering the contentment and joy Dame Esther has found.

Dame Esther has now lived at least twelve months longer than she expected. I’m delighted for her and for those who’ve enjoyed meaningful time with her over the last year.

At the same time, she could be responsible for helping to unleash something terrible.

Assisted suicide robs people of the second chances Dame Esther is currently receiving. It fundamentally changes the nature of healthcare, turning doctors into killers and making suicide a “treatment option” — diverting money away from the kinds of “wonder drugs” Rantzen is receiving. It pushes the whole medical profession into complicity with its agenda. People take their lives for fear of being or becoming a burden on others. Everywhere it has been made legal, it has spread from its initial apparently-tight restrictions to more and more conditions — even mental health conditions.

And, fundamentally, it kills precious humans, made in God’s image who are worthy of protection — from themselves and others.

Tears outside Parliament

On the day of the vote in November, I shared some personal reasons why I oppose assisted suicide. My wife Adele lives with many conditions that could be construed as terminal illnesses under the bill going through Parliament. Her life is extremely valuable but the moment assisted suicide is available, it stops being a given in the NHS that she’ll be supported to live. 

The decisions that parliamentarians are making now are not just about the bill before them. Once the principle of helping people live, not die, is lost, all kinds of mundane decisions can and will be made that push people towards suicide.

At our rally outside Parliament, I also shared these reasons with many of the crowd. I made it about fifteen seconds into what I was going to say before bursting into ugly tears. Fighting assisted suicide isn’t just my role as Communications Manager at Christian Concern; it’s an incredibly personal battle for me. After about three months of intense campaigning I was physically and emotionally exhausted. 

I’m not going to blame Dame Esther for the havoc the assisted suicide bill wrought on my exercise and eating habits that led to that moment outside Parliament. But the contrast between her experience of the last year and mine is a sore one to me.

She no doubt thought that allowing assisted suicide is a matter of compassion. But my understanding of compassion led me to work tirelessly and at real personal cost to undo her mistake.

There is a real chance that we can still stop this deadly bill. It still has to go through its Third Reading in the House of Commons. This is usually when the practicalities and details of a bill are considered. Although a huge number of bills pass their third reading, there are good reasons why this should and could be different. 

A huge number of MPs who ended up voting for the bill to pass said that they were unsure about its safeguards. As the bill continues to be scrutinised and MPs understand that it is not fixable, they may well change their vote to oppose it. 

This year, it is our job to make sure MPs realise this and vote accordingly.

Not the only one to outlive expectations

Dame Esther isn’t the only one who has outlived expectations. Just before Christmas, Slade’s Noddy Holder shared how five years ago, he was “diagnosed with oesophageal cancer and given just six months to live”.

These are just two of many examples of what anyone who’s researched this topic already knows — medical prognoses can be wildly wrong. The six-month limit in Kim Leadbeater’s bill means nothing because assessments that far out are highly unreliable.

I rejoice that Dame Esther has been given the chance to realise that the end of her life is meaningful and valuable. Now I pray that she will go that one step further — that she would give others that same opportunity by speaking against the bill she previously fought for.