Harrowing tales open inquiry on assisted dying laws

People dying in Britain face "uncontrollable" pain and "unbearable suffering", which palliative care alone cannot fix, according to the first evidence to a major new parliamentary inquiry asking if assisted dying should be legalised.

- Robert Booth

In a submission in favour of a change in the law, Molly Meacher told the Commons health and social care committee that the reality of end of life could include vomiting faeces, endless nausea and decaying tumours that smelled so bad they drove people out of hospital wards.

"They are existing, they're not living," the crossbench peer and chair of the charity Dignity in Dying told the committee inquiry yesterday, which comes eight years after the House of Commons last considered changing legislation in 2015. Opening proceedings, the committee chair, Steve Brine, the Conservative MP for Winchester, said it was a subject that was "incredibly sensitive and affects us all: which is how we die".

Members of the public and campaigners for and against assisted dying have already made tens of thousands of submissions. The MPs have visited Oregon, in the US, where assisted dying has been legal for terminally ill, mentally competent adults since 1997. It is also legal in Australia, New Zealand, Canada the Netherlands, Belgium and other US states, but remains outlawed in the large majority of countries.