Mum-of-two Christie Arntsen, whose incurable breast cancer has returned for the fifth time, has said she feels “robbed” by peers who have derailed plans to legalise assisted dying
A mum-of-two whose incurable breast cancer has returned for the fifth time has said she feels “robbed” by peers who have derailed plans to legalise assisted dying.
Christie Arntsen, 58, who lives near Whitney, said she has been left “absolutely mortified” at what she described as an “undemocratic” process in the House of Lords. In an historic vote last year, MPs voted to legalise assisted dying by 314 to 291 – a majority of 23.
But the bill has since stalled in the Lords, with a small group of opposing peers accused of filibustering, a tactic used to deliberately waste time in a debate so it falls. The bill is expected to run out of time when the parliamentary session ends next month/
In an interview with The Mirror, Ms Arnsten said: “It just blows my mind that the House of Lords have the power to mess up something (that was passed by) MPs, who have been voted for by the population. That just seems so undemocratic. I’m absolutely mortified at what’s gone on. I feel like it’s not democracy in action and I can’t understand why it’s been allowed to happen.”
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The law would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with fewer than six months to live to apply for an assisted death, subject to approval by two doctors and a panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) has already received over 200 hours of scrutiny across both the Commons and the Lords, more than most Government Bills.
Ms Arnsten, who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013, criticised arguments about a slippery slope for disabled people as they would not be eligible for an assisted death under the law. The grandmother-of-one suggested some peers have “blinders on” as they are fiercely against assisted dying in principle.
She said: “I’m going to be dying. I’m going to be in the last weeks of my life. I’m not saying I want to go now. I couldn’t go now, but say I was terminally ill, I wouldn’t go straight away, I would wait till I was in pain or it was too much, and then I could say: ‘That’s enough now.’
“What I don’t understand is, why would that person believe they had the right to make me suffer for longer than I had to? Why is that okay?”
She said having the choice of an assisted death would’ve meant she felt “very differently” towards her latest diagnosis. “Prior to what’s been going on in the House of Lords, I really believed there was a chance that there would be an option of assisted dying for me and then I would actually be able to live a happy life until the point in which I chose to,” she said.
Speaking about MPs’ historic vote to pass the legislation last summer, Ms Arnsten added: “It was an absolutely wonderful moment and I feel retrospectively robbed of the joy, if you know what I mean, because it felt like the joy of the beginning of something.
“And now I feel like, because of a very few number of peers, this has not been taken seriously. This hasn’t been considered properly, and therefore my hope has been dashed and almost treated carelessly. Really, I just think this is real, just filibustering, putting silly amendments in, and just making it so difficult, it’s so unkind to all of those people that this will make a huge difference to.”