Dame Prue Leith believes her son would have a “different attitude” towards assisted dying had he watched his uncle or father die – as she did.
The broadcaster, best known for The Great British Bake Off, urged members to “vote for change” as the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is set to be debated in the Commons.
MPs will take part in a free vote on the proposed law, which would make it legal for over-18s who are terminally ill to be given medical assistance to end their own life in England and Wales.
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Dame Prue told the Politics Hub With Sophy Ridge that she hadn’t given much thought to assisted dying until the death of her brother David, who she witnessed “screaming in agony” towards the end of his life.
However, her son Danny Kruger – the shadow work and pensions minister – told Sky News previously that it is “impossible” for the assisted dying bill tabled by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater to be “tight enough”.
He said if the UK had “top quality palliative care”, nobody would need the option of assisted dying.
But Dame Prue believes her son “would have a different attitude” had he seen “his uncle die or his father die”.
Asked if she and Mr Kruger argue about the topic, the broadcaster said: “We mostly don’t get into it.
“It always just gets into the long discussion, which is never bad tempered I must say, you know, because we are very fond of each other.”
The Bake Off favourite told Sophy Ridge that she is strongly in favour of assisted dying due to the death of her brother, who she witnessed in “screaming agony” at the end of his life.
David was in his 60s when he died as a result of bone cancer, and Dame Prue recalled the heartbreaking moments she witnessed before his death.
She said: “The morphine would work for a couple of hours, but then it would fail and you wouldn’t get another dose.
“They only did it every four hours. And so he was really first crying, whimpering, moaning, then crying, then screaming, and then absolutely desperate.
“And the rest of the ward have to suffer it. The nurses have to suffer. His family have to suffer it.”
Dame Prue said David was “begging for somebody to help him”.
“He would say things like, ‘if I was a dog, if I was a horse, you would do the right thing by me, you’d put me down.'”
She is urging MPs to “vote for a change” in the law, because “there’s no question the current law is not working”.
MPs will on Friday decide whether or not to back assisted dying. The proposed law would make it legal for over-18s who are terminally ill to be given medical assistance to end their own life in England and Wales.
The bill sets out detailed requirements in order to be eligible.
The Labour MP proposing it, Ms Leadbeater, says the safeguards are the “most robust” in the world, but others argue it is a “slippery slope towards death on demand”.
