Esther Rantzen's daughter's plea for mum to have 'kinder death' with Dignitas
Dame Esther Rantzen's daughter has broken her silence on her mum's decision to consider ending her life at Dignitas.
The TV legend admitted considering ending her life at the Swiss clinic as she battles stage four cancer. "I have joined Dignitas. I thought, well, if the next scan says nothing’s working I might buzz off to Zurich but it puts my family and friends in a difficult position as they would want to go with me," she told the BBC's The Today Podcast.
Now the telly star's daughter Rebecca Wilcox has spoken movingly about said her mother's comments on assisted dying. Speaking to Patrick Christys on GB News she said: "I have gone back and forth about it a lot. Obviously, I want her to live forever."
Rebecca added: "That is what she originally promised us. Her parents lived to 90 and 93 and we thought we had another decade with her. She has always made brilliant decisions, not necessarily the easy ones. And I think this is another brilliant decision.
Dame Esther Rantzen is battling stage four cancer (ITV)"I support her choice to make this decision. It's a very difficult wording to be able to get away with because you need to be able to say what you feel without incriminating yourself and how ridiculous is that? I've heard that family members have said goodbye to each other at airports because they cannot get on the plane with them, and they cannot go to Dignitas or whichever place it is.
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"I think the fact my mum's a terrible traveller, she's ever so nervous, so doing that journey by herself, that's just an impossibility for me. But if I or my sister or brother or anyone else, sat by her, held her hand, went to the place with her, held her hand, waited for the awful moment, and then stayed with her till afterwards and then transported her body home, we would most likely be arrested."
Dame Esther said the thought of her being reunited with departed loved ones and friends cheers up her family. Assisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years. Assisted dying opponents believe it may lead to people ending their lives out of fear of becoming a burden on family.
Should assisted dying be legalised in the UK? Vote in our poll HERE to have your say.
Dame Esther said she was unsure if she would see her last birthday on June 22, so it has been “very unexpected” that she has made it to the Christmas period. She added: “Anything can happen, I live in a forest, a tree can fall on me. I’ve got to drop off my perch for some reason, and I’m 83 damn it, so I should be jolly grateful and indeed am.”
Rebecca explained: "I think if you have a terminal diagnosis of a physical illness and you are facing a terrible death like motor neurone why wouldn't you take a kinder, gentler death? For somebody that's been so honest and open and been on all the reality shows where you bare your soul, she's very, very private about how she is so basically we live scan to scan.
"It's not great. Living with cancer is not fun. It's tiring, knowing that you have cancer, it's tiring, physically, living with cancer. She has been the person with more energy than I have ever known in my whole life and it is interesting and awful to see this stage of her life. But we've got a Christmas we never thought we were going to have.
"When she was diagnosed back in January, we thought she wouldn't make it to Christmas. So we’ve gone nuts for Christmas. I've got trees and lights and baubles and presents and stars everywhere. Father Christmas is leaving many stockings. We've got three elves on the shelves and it's all going nuts and it's all for her and I can't wait."
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