WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en

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Well I've been campaigning to change the
law in the UK for last 25 years, to make

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it possible for a competent adult, who's
suffering unbearably, to have a medical

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assistance in ending their lives. This to
me is a basic importance of showing

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personal autonomy, of being in control.
And it is basically good humanism to

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kind of follow those kind of concepts.

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I mean, I can remember going back many years.
I was a newly qualified doctor in 1956.

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I was a house physician at the Prince of
Wales Hospital in North London. We had a

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patient there in his late 40s, who had
extensive cancer of the lungs, and we

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told him that no further treatment was
possible. He said: 'Well, what can you do to

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help me?' And talking with the consultant
and with the ward sister, with him and

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his wife very frankly, we said 'What we can
do is to increase the medication you're

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having for pain control.' He fully agreed
to this, and so he had these injections

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of morphine. We didn't have diamorphine
in those days, but it was morphine, and

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these were given on an increasing basis
over the next 48 hours, and then he died.

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Now whether he died because of the
morphine injections, or because of his

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underlying cancer, one will never know.
But this was regarded as good, normal

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hospital medical practice in those days.

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Nowadays it is possible for someone in
the UK, who becomes terminally ill, which

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means likely to die within six months, or
someone who is suffering unbearably from

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various medical conditions, who still is
mentally competent to take a decision

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about how their life should end. It's
possible for that person to go to

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Switzerland. That is the only country in
the world where foreigners can go and

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receive a doctor-assisted suicide, if
they qualify according to Swiss law.

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Now I have accompanied, over the last 15
years or so, five people who have gone to

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Switzerland. I can still remember as if
it was yesterday when I went with them.

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For example, the first person I
accompanied was a woman from Glasgow

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called May Murphy. She was in her 70s, she
was a widow, she had multiple systems

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atrophy, and she was bedridden, and she
was determined that she did not want to

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continue with this awful condition. So
together we went to Switzerland and I

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can remember how relaxed she was on the
journey. For example, on the plane she

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turned to me, she was eating a sandwich,
and she said 'You know, I have perhaps this as

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my last supper, I only have one disciple
with me'. And when we landed at the

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airport in Zurich, and the cabin crew
always say 'Well, we wish you a safe

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onward journey', in a very loud voice she
said 'If only you knew where I was going!'

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And just before she drank the fatal
substance, Nembutal, which would

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end her life, she kind of made a little
toast to her son and myself, and thanked

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us very much for being with her, and
drank the liquid, and in a matter of five

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minutes, she was in a coma, and she had
died within 20 minutes in her son's arms.

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It was a most dignified and responsible
end of one's life. She was in control,

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this is what she wanted, and she had all
the medical reasons to end her life.

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For me the most important reason to have
a 'right to die' law in the UK, to make it

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possible for someone to ask a doctor's
help to end their life, is that this is a

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basic human right. It's a matter of
personal autonomy. 'It's my body, my

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decision' is a simple way to answer it.
And you can quote the various articles in

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the European Convention on Human Rights
or the United Nations Declaration on

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Human Rights, which state that this
should be a matter of personal choice.