Dimbleby backs assisted dying for terminally ailing individuals of sound thoughts
Broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby has said he backs assisted dying rights for terminally ill people of sound mind – as he reflected on his late brother’s battle with motor neurone disease.
Scupltor Nicholas Dimbleby, who is also the brother of TV star David Dimbleby and won acclaim for statues such as that of JM Whistler on Cheyne Walk and Jimmy Hill at Coventry City FC, died in February.
Speaking on ITV‘s Good Morning Britain today, Jonathan said his brother had always been a supporter of the right to assisted death.
He added: ‘He wanted the option and believed he should have had the option, once he was terminally ill, of sound mind as he was until the very end but in a terrible physical condition.
Broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby said on Good Morning Britain today that he backs assisted dying rights for terminally ill people of sound mind
Jonathan Dimbleby (left) pictured with his late brother Nicholas who was a sculptor (right)
Johnathan Dimbleby pictured speaking with Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain today
‘He wanted the option, whether he would have taken the option I do not know.
‘I found out on his behalf about Dignitas, which is what he was thinking about, at one point.
‘The complexities of that, the awfulness of having to go through the procedures, the cost of it – £15,000 pounds now at least, the fact that your loved ones if they consciously seem to be helping you in any way towards that end, are liable to criminal prosecution, there is a series of big hurdles.
‘But I think the the fundamental point is, in my own view, that if you are terminally ill in the sound mind, you should have that right.
‘I am acutely aware, as anyone should be of the those who are vulnerable and those who have disabilities.
Johnathan told Good Morning Britain how his brother had always been a supporter of the right to assisted death
Johnathan, pictured with Richard Madeley and Susanna Reid, said his brother ‘believed he should have had the option’ in relation to assisted dying
Nicholas Dimbleby pictured with his sculpture ‘A bronze boy on a pedestal’
‘I greatly respect those in those situations, particularly those disability campaigners who fear that this is a slippery slope.
‘I don’t think there is any need to have a slippery slope with the legislation that I think should be proposed.’
Earlier this year, Mr Dimbleby told The Guardian that the current rules which make assisted dying a criminal offence ‘are anachronistically cruel as capital punishment’.
Mr Dimbleby, a friend of King Charles, added: ‘The law should be changed so that individuals like my brother, protected by crucial legal safeguards, would have the right to die at home at a moment of their choice.’
Dame Esther Rantzen and Dame Prue Leith are among the other high profile advocates for assisted dying, while actress and disability rights campaigner Liz Carr has spoken out in opposition.
Prue Leith (pictured) has previously advocated for assisted dying
Dame Esther Rantzen (pictured) is among the other high profile advocates for assisted dying
Actress and disability rights campaigner Liz Carr (pictured) has spoken out in opposition
Laws in the UK currently prevent people from asking for medical help to die and Carr has been a vocal opponent of assisted dying for more than a decade.
A debate in the island’s States Assembly today will precede a vote on legalising assisted dying, although the vote may not happen until tomorrow.
Health and social services minister Tom Binet defended the controversial proposals, saying they had been ‘very much influenced and informed by the views of islanders’.
In 2021, just over three-quarters of the members of a citizens’ jury on Jersey agreed that assisted dying should be permitted, and later that year the Assembly became the first parliament in the British Isles to decide ‘in principle’ to allow assisted dying.