Nadine Dorries, the former culture minister, spoke about the consequences of her husband's death in her newspaper column. Photo: LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES
Nadine Dorries said her husband's death at home had only deepened her opposition to euthanasia.
Paul Dorries, who died of bowel cancer in June 2019, asked to go to hospital At the clinic Dignitas in Switzerland, he will commit suicide as soon as he is diagnosed with an incurable disease, the former Minister of Culture said.
But voicing her opposition to the “disturbing” practice of assisted suicide, Ms Dorries said her husband was ultimately happy to spend his final weeks in palliative care surrounded by loved ones.
Assisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and carries a maximum penalty of 14 years' imprisonment.
In her weekly Daily Mail column, Ms Dorries said her husband told her he wanted to “move to Dignitas now while I still can” on the day he had four months to live.
“In reality this did not happen. The Dignitas registration process takes a significant amount of time…Paul's short prognosis left him incapacitated,” she wrote.
“But, as I will explain, he died peacefully at home four months later – surrounded by his loving family – it only reinforced my strong opinion that assisted dying is wrong.”
Ms Dorries described euthanasia as “sudden, brutal, clinical and, I believe, distressing for those who have to watch.”
Debate has reignited after Dame Esther Rantzen, a TV presenter and campaigner, said she had signed up for Dignitas, where doctors help terminally ill patients end their lives, after she was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer.
< p>A petition for a parliamentary vote on assisted dying received 10,000 signatures on Wednesday. this means the government now has a responsibility to respond.
Sir Keir Starmer, the leader of the Labor Party, has said he will allow parliamentary time to pass a bill to change the law.
Despite his initial request to take his own life, Ms Dorris says her late husband treasured the “attention and banter” given by those who cared for him in his final weeks.
“He didn't do it.” “I will die in a clinical setting in Switzerland, but at home, in our arms,” she concluded. “And in the end he ended up exactly where he wanted.”
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