Widower visits MPs in push for assisted dying law

Campaigners visited Parliament to give speeches about assisted dying

A widower has visited Parliament in a bid to force a debate about assisted dying.

Warwick Jackson, from Bridgnorth, Shropshire, said his wife Ann begged for her life to end when she was in the final stages of cancer.

He joined fellow Dignity in Dying campaigners, including TV presenter Rebecca Wilcox, and met with MPs at the House of Commons.

Euthanasia is illegal in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Anti-assisted dying group Care Not Killing claim a change in the law would put vulnerable people at risk.

Speaking to BBC Radio Shropshire, Mr Jackson said about 30 campaigners with placards protested outside the Houses of Parliament before they gave speeches to MPs.

“There are a lot of things that are happening right now in the assisted dying movement and to be amongst it, feeling the momentum of all of it, was actually quite invigorating,” he said.

Warwick Jackson lost his wife Ann to cancer in 2020

A petition from Dame Esther Rantzen, who has stage four cancer, was launched in January and signed by more than 100,000 people within a month.

She has previously spoken about how she believed people should be given the choice about "how you want to go and when you want to go".

In a previous interview with BBC Radio Shropshire, Mr Jackson said his wife’s death was traumatic for both of them.

He said at the time: “Her suffering went on and she wanted it [to end] but the system wasn’t allowed to give it to her.

"She shouldn’t have died in that way, nobody should die in that way.”

Rebecca Wilcox and Dignity in Dying chief executive Sara Wooten attended the event

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer recently promised Dame Esther that there would be a vote on assisted dying if he became prime minister.

Responding to the announcement, Dr Gordon McDonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, said: “Changing the law to legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia in the UK would represent a dramatic change in how doctors and nurses treat and care for people and put the lives of the vulnerable, terminally ill and disabled people at risk.”