Dame Esther Rantzen says it’s now too late to ‘buzz off’ to Dignitas as she planned
Dame Esther Rantzen has said it’s too late for her to ‘buzz off’ to Dignitas to end her life as planned as she’s now ‘too physically fragile’.
The legendary broadcaster and founder of youth support charity Childline, has been open about her plans to visit the Swiss assisted-dying clinic after she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2023.
Speaking to LBC’s Nick Ferrari back in 2024, Rantzen detailed how she’d like to spend her final hours.
“I’d like to fly off to Zurich with my nearest and dearest,” she said.
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“Have a fantastic dinner the night before. I’d love caviar, if possible. The fact it doesn’t always agree with me doesn’t matter, does it? I could even have champagne, which I’m deeply allergic to.
“Then the next day, go to this rather unappealing place where they do it. Listen to a favourite piece of music, say goodbye to everybody.
"I'll tell them to 'cheer up, I’m meeting my late husband, my departed dog and my mother at the pearly gates' and hold out my hand for an injection or open my mouth for a rather disgusting medication."
However, Rantzen has now said that despite having ‘spent the money and made the plans’ to go to Dignitas, she was now at the point where she is ‘too physically fragile to make the journey’.
The 86-year-old explained: “Everything I didn’t want to happen I’m having to go through now, which means that the people I love and care about either cannot visit me, or when they do, see me suffering pain or indignity which will inevitably get between them and our shared happy memories, and may even overwhelm the way they think of me.
“Obviously, I would prefer that my end could be swift and painless and I could ask for help now I’m dying. But I can’t. I knew it would be like this if I died in this country because the Assisted suicide is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a maximum prison sentence of 14 years and while it is a specific criminal offence in Scotland, assisting the death of someone can leave a person open to being charged with murder or other offences.
Rantzen said she would have had to travel to Dignitas alone, and before she became too ill.
She added: “Why did I not buzz off to Zurich as I had planned when my life became unbearable? Unfortunately, when I was strong enough to make the flight and go to Dignitas, my life was not unbearably painful, indeed I was able to relax in my beloved cottage in the New Forest.
“And by the time life did become unbearable I was too physically fragile to make the journey and go through the Dignitas process.
“So even though I had spent the money and made the plans I was not ready to end my life back then, and did not realise that would be my last chance. ”
She is now calling on MPs to vote in favour of legalising assisted dying for England and Wales when proposed legislation returns to Parliament on Friday.
MPs will vote on what is known as Second Reading of the Bill, and if it passes it will continue its journey through Parliament for further consideration by MPs and peers in the House of Lords.
It must pass both Houses to become law although supporters have suggested the Parliament Act – a rarely used piece of legislation which allows for Bills that have been backed by the Commons in two successive sessions but rejected by peers to pass into law without Lords approval – could be used to get the Bill through.
Claire Reid