Dying mum ‘does not have limitless time’ as she urges MPs to lastly act on assisted dying invoice
Hannah Slater said: “I do not have endless time to wait for politics to catch up. For people like me, this is about whether we get any say over how our lives end and how much suffering we are expected to endure”
Hannah and her son Theo is pleading with MPs to help get the assisted dying bill back on track(Image: Supplied)
A terminally ill mum is urging MPs to step forward and bring back the assisted dying bill saying she doesn’t have ‘endless time’.
Hannah Slater, 38, was speaking, after the Private Members’ Bill ballot left open a possible route for the legislation to return to Parliament. The mum, who has a three-year-old son, is living with stage 4 breast cancer that has spread to her brain and leptomeninges. She was told earlier this year she had just months left to live.
Campaigners are calling for MPs drawn towards the top of the ballot to consider taking the Bill on and giving terminally ill people another chance to be heard. Hannah Slater, from Bristol, who spent her career working in Policy and Campaigns, said: “I do not have endless time to wait for politics to catch up. For people like me, this is about whether we get any say over how our lives end and how much suffering we are expected to endure.
“Knowing that decision is not in my own hands is a feeling I can barely describe. Members of the House of Lords took that chance away from me when they blocked the Bill from progressing.
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“I have a small child, and I am very much invested in living for as long as possible. But there may come a time when enough is enough, and I cannot accept that people I do not know would take that choice away from my family and me. If there is still a path back, I am asking MPs to take it.”
Hannah was first diagnosed with breast cancer when her son was just eight months old. After 18 months she was given the all clear and returned to work only to fall ill again. She ended up spending a week in hospital before being told she had brain cancer. The cancer has spread to the cerebrospinal fluid, known as leptomeningeal disease (LMD).
“It was annoying. I got the all clear, but obviously it had already spread to my brain at some point. The LMD is the worst bit because it causes plaque to build up in the fluid around your brain, and so much can go wrong neurologically.”
She was sent home after being told most people die three to six months after diagnosis and told to get her affairs in order. “I’ve actually been feeling good lately, and I don’t feel like I’m going to die. I’m trying not to die.”
But explaining her support for the assisted dying bill, she said: “I don’t want to be unable to see, not talk, not walk, be incontinent, just stuck in bed. That’s not living.
“I worry about the impact on my son and my partner. They will look after me for as long as they can, but there are lots of considerations…when the time comes, I want the options there and to be able to use them.”
Hannah, has lost vision in her left eye and is worried about going blind. “I am trying to adapt, but as my world gets smaller, some control and independence are crucial. Without it, I am miserable, and my will to live diminishes.”
“Assisted dying gives the person back some choice, control and dignity It would allow terminally ill people like me to live better as we transition from this life.”
Supporters hope they may have been handed a second chance to pass the bill, which ran out of time in the House of Lords. A random draw of names in what is known as the ‘private members ballot’ has given several supportive MPs the opportunity to bring the bill back.
Among the top five MPs drawn, three previously voted for the assisted dying bill. The most supportive of them is thought to be the Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George, who was drawn in fourth place.
Dr Richard Osborne, Medical Director at My Death, My Decision, said: “How can anyone look Hannah in the eye and tell her no? It is not right to leave things as they are after all the hope the Assisted Dying Bill gave people when it passed in the Commons. MPs now have an opportunity to bring it back, and they should not let that pass them by.
“We are calling on politicians to bring this Bill back for the people it was designed to protect. People like Hannah, who will otherwise face uncertainty and needless suffering, even as they know a better alternative is possible.
“As a consultant in cancer medicine for 30 years, I know palliative care can do a great deal, but I also know its limits. Hannah and others like her deserve at least the choice.”
The previous assisted dying Bill passed the House of Commons but was blocked in the House of Lords after months of delay.
While Friday’s ballot does not yet guarantee a clear route back, My Death, My Decision said it still leaves open the possibility of reform returning if one of the MPs drawn in the leading places is willing to act.
The campaign is now urging MPs selected in the ballot to consider bringing the Bill back as soon as possible and “finish the job they started”.
Recent polling shows public support for reform remains high and stable. NatCen’s latest British Social Attitudes findings show 79% support for assisted dying for terminally ill people, while More in Common found 83% of people think the Bill should be brought back if blocked in the House of Lords.
