'All we want is to be able to choose a good death with dignity'

ASSISTED dying campaigners simply want to be allowed to choose "a good pain-free death with dignity", Dame Esther Rantzen has said.

- Hanna Geissler

The veteran broadcaster, 84, yesterday spoke of her surprise and joy that MPs are expected to vote on changing the law within weeks.

She said: "The fact that I may actually still be here to witness a debate in Parliament on this crucial life and death issue is not what I expected at all." Dame Esther's revelation last year that she had stage-four lung cancer and had registered with the Swiss Dignitas clinic reignited a national debate about assisted dying. Labour MP Kim Leadbeater will introduce a Private Member's Bill seeking to legalise it for terminally ill people near death.