Dame Esther has criticised Mr Streeting for trying to influence the debate (Image: Jonathan Brady/Peter Byrne/PA Wire)
Dame Esther Rantzen has criticised the Health Secretary for claiming with “no evidence” that introducing assisted dying would lead to other NHS services being cut.
Wes Streeting said a law change would carry “resource implications … and those choices would come at the expense of other choices”.
But asked by the Express what cost analysis his comments were based on, he did not offer any evidence to back up the claim.
Financial analysis of a similar bill in Scotland found that legalising assisted dying would effectively be cost-neutral.
Dame Esther, 84, who has stage four lung cancer, said: “I hate to argue with the Secretary of State for Health, but the only people who could be given this crucial assistance to end their lives would already be receiving palliative care because they would be in their final sixth months. So how can this new Bill put any extra pressure on the NHS?
READ MORE: Assisted dying Bill – every detail explained
The assisted dying Bill will face a free vote among MPs at the end of the month (Image: AP)
“Mr Streeting has no evidence to support his claims but still makes them public even though ministers have been officially asked not to campaign.”
Speaking to reporters at the NHS Providers annual conference in Liverpool, the Health Secretary said he had ordered a Department of Health and Social Care review of the cost of introducing assisted dying. He added: “That work is now under way, so I can’t give you a precise figure today.”
There are “choices and trade-offs” with implementing any new NHS service, Mr Streeting said, but “that doesn’t mean people should vote against it on that basis”. And he insisted that he could remain as Health Secretary if the Bill passed despite vocally opposing it.
A Financial Memorandum published alongside the Scottish bill estimated that the cost would be relatively low due to the small number of people expected to request assisted dying.
It noted that much of the infrastructure required was already in place, and health services would save money in cases where patients no longer require palliative care.
Dame Esther said Mr Streeting needed to “recognise how many doctors and lawyers think change is crucial”.
She said: “They know the current criminal law is imposing unnecessary suffering. They believe, and surely he should believe, that the welfare of the patient should come first, and patients should have the choice, and their wishes should be respected.
“Until he has seen someone dying in agony or acute distress, being denied the help to die that they are begging for, is he really qualified to say the current cruel, messy criminal law must stay unchanged?
“And has he spoken to loving compassionate families who are being investigated by the police at the time of their deepest grief because they were with their loved one when they were forced to travel to Switzerland to achieve a good death?”
The Childline founder added: “If he has swayed enough MPs to oppose it with him, that doubtless means another decade will go by before another debate is possible, a decade during which thousands more will suffer unnecessarily.
“That is why, although of course I know a new law cannot come into force in time for me, I am campaigning for future terminally ill patients and their families, for a vote in favour of the right to ask for help, not to shorten your life, but shorten your death.”
Nathaniel Dye, who lives in Mr Streeting’s Ilford North constituency, is terminally ill with stage four bowel cancer.
The 38-year-old music teacher said he supported his MP’s efforts to improve the NHS but “on the matter of assisted dying, we respectfully disagree”.
He added: “My life now is about hoping for the best but preparing for the worst. Having the choice of assisted dying would bring me so much comfort, knowing that if my pain becomes unbearable as I die I may be able to alleviate the suffering or what could be an horrific death.
“I agree that the NHS and palliative care as a whole must be better funded, but for some people – possibly me included – suffering will be beyond its reach.”
Mr Dye said people in this position “deserve both the best care and choice to ease their suffering as they inevitably die”. He went on: “I know of many dying people who have suffered horrifically at the end of their lives, and my biggest fear is facing a similar end.
“I want MPs from all parties to listen to my story and those of people like me, who need this choice. Our deaths depend on it.”
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s assisted dying Bill will face a second reading on November 29. Asked whether he would ensure the Bill could be thoroughly debated, Sir Keir Starmer said there was already “sufficient time”.
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of campaign group Dignity in Dying, said the Bill specifies that only those in the last six months of life would be able to request assistance and this is “a group who will already be receiving care from NHS and hospice services”.
She added: “This is not a new cohort of people suddenly requiring resource. Blocking this Bill will not stop suffering, nor will it fix the problems within our healthcare system, but it will prevent a full, constructive and comprehensive debate from taking place.
“The public can see that, and if MPs agree they must back this Bill at Second Reading on the 29th and grasp the opportunity to bring about real and much-needed change.”
Ms Wootton said the proposed legislation was “based on best practice from assisted dying laws around the world and drawing from the many years of previous debate in Westminster, is the most robust proposal ever put forward in this country.
“Doctors already routinely assess for coercion in a whole host of decisions patients can make at the moment, including to stop life-prolonging treatment or to refuse food and water to hasten their death.
“This Bill will increase safety measures to protect against undue pressure, making assisted dying the most regulated end of life practice.”
Downing Street would not be drawn on whether Mr Streeting was right to say a new assisted dying law could come at the expense of other NHS services.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “Ultimately this is a matter for Parliament to decide and that is why it is going to be a free vote, and Parliament will debate the principles and merits of assisted dying and the issues surrounding the Bill.”