Esther Rantzen's daughter desperate plea as 'mum should not have to die alone'

19 December 2023 , 22:40

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Esther Rantzen's daughter desperate plea as 'mum should not have to die alone'

Esther Rantzen’s daughter has told the Mirror she is horrified at the thought of her mum flying to Switzerland to die alone at the Dignitas clinic.

Rebecca Wilcox could face prosecution if she went to Zurich with her 83-year-old mum, who is considering the option as she faces dying of lung cancer. She wants her mum, who has stage four lung cancer, to breathe her last at home, surrounded by family.

She said: “My brother, sister and I would be next to her, telling jokes, sharing our final Wordle score, she would beat us at Scrabble, she would close her eyes – and possibly not wake up. That’s the way she would like to go, I think.”

But, instead, Dame Esther, 83, is threatening to end her life at the Dignitas clinic. If anyone went with her they could be arrested and prosecuted upon their return to Britain, which Rebecca branded “horrific”.

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She said: “Prisoners get a nicer farewell with their favourite last meal, whereas she goes into some strange conveyor belt where you are rushed through a process in an impersonal room without the people that you love because if they come with you they will be arrested. We wouldn’t be able to go because we’d be arrested on landing. I don’t want her to go. I don’t want her to die. I certainly don’t want her to go alone.”

It is why Rebecca, 43, and her siblings Miriam, 45, and Joshua, 42, want a free vote in Parliament on assisted dying. In 2015, MPs voted against changing the law to let doctors help terminally ill people end their lives, so it can still lead to 14 years’ jail. So, to die with dignity, Dame Esther may be forced to go to Switzerland alone.

Esther Rantzen has joined Dignitas

Esther Rantzen and her daughter, Rebecca Wilcox (Getty Images Europe)

Rebecca said: “Mum is the worst flier, she gets nervous, she goes to the wrong gate, she always gets delayed. Imagine getting delayed on a flight to Dignitas. And Dignitas is not a lovely place. It’s on an industrial estate – it looks like a box. The point with Dignitas is that you go before your time because you have to prove a level of competence and faculty. So mum would go before she would ever choose to if it was available here. It’s not about suicide.”

Esther, Desmond, Miriam, left, Rebecca and baby Joshua in 1982 (Getty Images)

Dame Esther will have a scan after Christmas which will show how well a “magic drug” is helping treat her cancer. This week, she told the BBC ’s Today podcast: “I thought, well, if the next scan says nothing’s working I might buzz off to Zurich.” Dame Esther, whose husband Desmond Wilcox died in 2000, will spend Christmas with her three children and her five grandchildren.

Michael Gove, who is Rebecca’s MP in Surrey Heath, has backed Dame Esther’s calls for a free vote. He said: “I have great respect and affection for Dame Esther. I am not yet persuaded of the case for assisted dying, but I think it’s appropriate for the Commons to revisit this.” PM Rishi Sunak ’s spokesman said: “It will be for Parliament to decide on a future debate.”

Ashleigh Rainbird