A retired High Court judge has said that Parkinson’s sufferers are being left out of the debate for a new assisted dying law.
Sir Nicholas Mostyn has argued that because people with the neurodegenerative disease are not terminally ill, they would not be covered by any change to the law.
The 67-year-old co-presenter of the Movers and Shakers podcast, which focuses on issues surrounding Parkinson’s, told the show in a forthcoming episode: “Parkies will never get a terminal diagnosis, so this bill is no f***ing use to us at all.
”In Spain, Parkinson’s is one of the most common reasons for seeking assisted death. We are going to be left on the beach here. There is a cohort of people like us who it is not going to help and we are left with the existing, most unsatisfactory law.”
The comments, as reported in the Sunday Times, come as a Bill to give choice at the end of life is set to come before Parliament for the first time in almost a decade.
MPs will be able to make their opinions known in the Commons on the controversial subject when they debate the bill on choice at the end of life for people with terminal illness on November 29.
Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s private member’s bill (PMB) is due to be formally introduced in Parliament on Wednesday.
A new study by the Policy Institute and the Complex Life and Death Decisions group at King’s College London (KCL) found that a fifth (20%) of people asked said they did not want assisted dying to be legalised in the next five years while 63% said they did.
Co-host Mark Mardell, a former BBC presenter who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2022, added: ”I think it’s everybody’s right to kill themselves, and that we shouldn’t listen to our western Christian heritage, be more like the Romans and Japanese, perhaps, and respect those who want to kill themselves.
“For me the problem is the only time I would want to die is when I couldn’t bear it any more and couldn’t make the decision. I abhor suicide as someone who finds life very sweet.
“Even as the lens gets narrower, I want to continue living, but I don’t know how you draw that distinction and stop people killing themselves from depression but still allow people with Parkinson’s.”
Co-presenter Gillian Lacey-Solymar, who was diagnosed 12 years ago, said that a six-month life expectancy rule would not cover the symptoms of Parkinson’s.
She said: “Let’s look at how bad something like Parkinson’s can get – say you are doubly incontinent, you can’t speak any more, you are in pain, you can’t move.
“What is the point in living? What terrifies me is the years ahead of this awful vegetative state that does happen to a lot of people with Parkinson’s.”
However Labour peer and former chancellor Lord Falconer, who withdrew his own assisted dying bill last week, said that there should be safeguards put in place within any new law.
The 72-year-old explained: “I am strongly of the view the state should not be providing assistance to people to take their own life unless they are dying imminently.
”If you allow the state to provide assistance when you are not terminally ill but depending upon unbearable suffering, the lines of what is appropriate become very difficult to draw.
“For example, people suffering from unendurable mental agony, perhaps in their mid-30s, should the state be providing assistance for them to end their lives?
“There need to be safeguards to prevent you being either over-persuaded, or doing it when you are not of sound mind. This is not a euthanasia bill.”
The Movers and Shakers episode discussing the issue will be released on Saturday, October 19.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel