Farmer calls for assisted dying law change

Earlier this year Anthony Hill was hospitalised after experiencing paraesthesia and facial droop

A farmer who is living with an incurable brain condition is urging the UK Government to change the law on assisted dying.

Anthony Hill, from Devon, does not want to reveal the exact nature of his condition, but said his surgeon had told him he would not be able to operate.

The 69-year-old said he would like to decide the nature of his death.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting recently said the "time had come" for the debate on assisted dying and the government told the BBC it would be up to Parliament to decide.

Mr Hill's family has farmed on the edge of Exmoor for decades, but recently the toll of the work has been too much for him.

Earlier this year he was hospitalised at the Royal Devon and Exeter after experiencing paraesthesia and facial droop. He later found out his brain was not functioning as it should.

"The surgeon has said very clearly, when your brain goes again, I can't operate, and I wouldn't," Mr Hill said.

The prognosis is such Mr Hill expects his brain to "simply give up" on him at some point in the near future.

He said it had led him to think about the nature of his death.

"If I had my way, it would be that when my brain does go, and it's going to, that instead of being incapacitated in a home, that my wife can hold my hand as they inject my other hand," he said.

"I hope I yawn once, and the game is over. That to me would be perfect. The alternative is too horrible to bear.

"I mean for my family, to have to come in and see me wither away - no thank you".

Mr Hill's plea has come as momentum for changing the law gathers pace in the UK.

Last month the former justice secretary Lord Falconer introduced an assisted dying bill in the Lords, increasing the likelihood of a government debate.

'Risk factors'

The bill would allow terminally ill adults with six months or fewer to live to get medical help to end their own lives.

Davina Hehir, from Dignity in Dying which campaigns for assisted dying in the UK, said support for changing the law is particularly strong in the South West.

"The latest poll shows that there's 75% support for assisted dying across the country. But in the South West we've seen very high support - over 80%.

"And it's historic, we've seen this kind of support over many years in the region. I think people desperately want both choice and safety as they die - under the current laws, people just don't get that."

Campaign group Care Not Killing believes there are "many problems" with what its spokesperson Alistair Thompson calls "legalised assisted suicide".

"It's very easy to get a high majority of people [in support] when you ask a simplistic question, should someone who is terminally ill, in excruciating pain, who is mentally competent, have the right to ask for assistance at the end of life?

"But if you ask more nuanced questions about risk factors, and how people could feel pressured, actually public opinion swings against it."

The government told the BBC it cannot comment and it is a matter for Parliament to decide whether to debate assisted dying.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said he remained committed to giving MPs a free vote on assisted dying laws at some point.