Assisted dying bill is either 'keeping me alive....or will kill me stone dead’ says Dame Esther Rantzen

Dame Esther, who is terminally ill with cancer, is one of the assisted dying bill's most high-profile supporters.

She has hit out at "a handful of peers in the House of Lords" that she claims "are really sabotaging the bill".

Asked whether she would have chosen to end her life by now if the law had passed, Dame Esther told LBC's Tom Swarbrick: "No, but my quality of life is fine."

"And for some reason I don't understand, some miracle drug that actually stopped working seems to have done the trick. And I am what my oncologist calls an outlier."

However, she noted that if she ends up suffering and palliative care doesn't work, "you can end up in a lot of pain [and] a lot of indignity".

She said: "I'm wondering whether this battle is keeping me alive. Either that or it'll kill me stone dead."

Read more: Assisted Dying bill almost certain to fail due to lack of debate time

Read more: Jersey becomes second part of British Isles to pass assisted dying law

She continued: "But my point is not that the kind of life that I'm lucky enough to be able to live at the moment should end prematurely, but if I end up suffering, and I'm afraid palliative care doesn't always work, and you can can end up in a lot of pain, a lot of indignity, and your poor family has to sit there watching you while you beg to die because your life has become unbearable.

"And those of us who are old enough to have witnessed this, in the deaths of those we love and care about, think actually we treat our pets with more compassion than we treat our humans. 

"So as far as I'm concerned, life is full of interest, still enjoyable. And while I don't know what's going wrong in my body, I don't want to know. Thank you very much."

The campaigner hit out at religious leaders who are opposing the bill, telling LBC: "I'm afraid most of the people who are most vocal about opposing this bill are indeed religious leaders.

"You've got bishops, you've got all sorts in there who are taking this choice away from people who don't share their faith. And I think it's wrong."

Dame Esther's comments come as it is now widely expected that the bill will not meet all its parliamentary stages before the end of the current session in May.

With the clock ticking, opponents of the draft law have been accused of trying to "talk out" the contentious legislation as it makes its way through the Lords.

The Parliament Act allows for bills backed by the Commons in two successive sessions, but rejected by peers, to pass into law without the Lords' approval.

Only seven bills have overridden the Lords using the powers under section 2 of the law, including the Hunting Act 2004.

If passed, the bill would allow adults with terminal illnesses in England and Wales who have less than six months to live to apply for an assisted death.

It was voted through by MPs in the Commons in June last year, by a majority of 24.

Lord Falconer, a proponent of the bill, has described the current situation as a “tragedy.”

He said: "The Lords prides itself on focusing on the things that matter, and that most certainly is not what's been going on here.

"The tragedy is that a small number of people in the Lords are blocking a bill that has passed in the Commons."

The Labour former minister suggested peers should be taking note of decisions made by elected chambers, including Jersey's States Assembly, which passed its draft Assisted Dying Law on Thursday.

This follows the passage of legislation in the Isle of Man, where the Tynwald became the first parliament in the British Isles to agree a framework for assisted dying in March last year.

"You've got the Commons, the Jersey parliament, and the Isle of Man parliament all passing it, and it's the Lords that are blocking it in England and Wales," he said.

"I'm all for the Lords if they want to vote and change the bill - change it, but then send it back to the Commons."

He went on to say: "It's not the end of the road, because the Parliament Act allows it to go through to the next session, and I'm sure that is what will happen."

Labour peer Baroness Berger called on supporters of the bill to "stop their continued attacks on the members of the House of Lords when all the evidence shows we have been engaging in the serious work of trying to fix the issues in the bill".

"It does a disservice to the House of Lords and they should spend their time on engaging with the massive problems with this bill rather than blaming peers for doing our job," she said.

The former MP for Liverpool Wavertree continued: "The truth is this bill entered the Lords in a terrible state, deeply flawed with swathes of issues of serious concern raised by experts such as the Royal colleges, professional groups and advocacy organisations.

"Not a single one of those groups would say this bill is safe."

The Prime Minister's official spokesman would not be drawn into saying whether the Government would support giving the bill extra time for scrutiny in the Lords, to reduce the risk it would fail to make it into law.