Poppy Bilderbeck's mother Kate died of terminal pancreatic cancer in August just days after her 59th birthday. According to Daily Mirror - Main, Poppy Bilderbeck described her mother planning her funeral and bucket list activities after being diagnosed. She believes an assisted death option would have given her mother peace and comfort at the end of her life, and has accused peers of a massive breach of their authority and power for frustrating plans to legalise assisted dying.
In June, MPs voted to legalise assisted dying by 314 to 291, a majority of 23. However, the bill has stalled in the House of Lords, with a small group of opposing peers accused of filibustering. Charity Dignity in Dying said 1% of peers have taken more than a third (34%) of speaking time on the bill. The bill is expected to run out of time when the parliamentary session ends next month.
Unlike Brexit, this is literal human lives. It feels like the House of Lords are just kind of taking hold of their power and their authority, which has not been backed or been supported by the general public, which just feels like a massive breach of their authority and power.
Dame Esther Rantzen, 85, is battling terminal lung cancer that has spread, with her life-preserving drugs no longer effective. She intends to travel to a Swiss clinic for assisted dying but cannot take her family with her. At a press conference, she said the bill's blockage is blatant sabotage by a handful of peers putting down 1,200 amendments to block it. She added that palliative care does not always protect people from pain or horrible symptoms like fecal vomiting, and expressed sadness that other countries have adopted assisted dying laws while the UK lags.
Sky News projected a breaking banner stating: 'Sky News understands assisted dying bill likely to fail.' It remains unclear what specific amendments are being used to filibuster the bill or how many peers are actively opposing it. The exact timeline for when the parliamentary session ends and the bill runs out of time is also unknown.
It feels so unfair that the bill isn't going to be passed because I just wouldn't wish anyone else to go through what me and my mum had to go through and it's avoidable, which makes it all the more frustrating.
When she got diagnosed, the day after, she was actually planning her funeral, planning what flowers she was going to have.
I think having her being able to have control would have given her a lot of peace and comfort knowing that she could choose, and it would be, it would be a dignified death.