From "That's Life" to "That's Death"

Ester Rantzen - Angel of Death,

I am sure at least that at least some of my readers will remember Ester Rantzen as the host of the popular “That’s Life” programme that ran from 1973 until 1994 on BBC1. It was a sort of consumer rights programme and I recall watching it on a Saturday night. Little did I think that Ester Rantzen - now Dame Ester Rantzen - would become the “inspiration” for UK PM Keir Starmer to try and introduced assisted dying killing.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer's promise to Dame Esther Rantzen of an assisted dying debate in parliament will finally be fulfilled this month.

What? Yes, precisely that

Proposals to give “terminally ill” people in England and Wales the right to choose to end their life (Commit suicide) are to be introduced in Parliament this month.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater is putting forward the bill and said "now is the time" to hold a fresh debate on assisted dying, after MPs rejected a bill on the issue in 2015.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously promised to give Labour MPs a chance to vote with their conscience on the issue and has supported a change in the law himself.

Let’s start with Dame Ester. I remember appearing on a BBC Sunday morning politics programme with her and took an immediate dislike to her. She seemed haughty and not used to being contradicted. I contradicted her on the issue of charity, something she has very Statist views on. I found her cold and aloof but the BBC treated her like a Hollywood A-lister. Me, not so much! Ester was famously at the BBC at the same time as Jimmy Saville, the sexual predator but she claims to have had NO IDEA as to what he got up to during all those years. You can make your own mind up - although worth pointing out she fronted a Charity called Childline.

More recently, Dame Esther has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and revealed that she intends to go to Dignitas in Switzerland with her family in order to die. However, UK law states that families of those who travel to the Swiss assisted-dying organisation could face criminal charges on their return. She wants the law changed so she can be helped to die in the UK without any criminal charges for those helping the process, medical or family.

Sir Keir feels “obliged” to help, or so we are asked to believe.

I absolutely oppose that which is euphemistically called “assisted dying”. For starters, it is assisted killing, a life is being taken and that is an absolute moral wrong. Then we get into issues such as what exactly is “terminally ill” and who determines this? We are being asked to gift even MORE power into the hands of doctors and we all know how that ends.

It’s also instructive to understand that the primary reason for many people choosing “assisted dying” is NOT that they are in excruciating pain but rather that they suffer from depression, an anxiety that they won’t become a burden on those around them. When they try to sell us on “assisted dying” they hype up the pain angle to gain our sympathy BUT that is not why many people choose this route.

For example;

A Dutch lady called Zoraya ter Beek, who has chronic depression, anxiety, trauma and unspecified personality disorder, expects to end her life soon. She has been granted her request for assisted dying on the grounds of unbearable mental suffering.

Pain is not the issue - rather “unspecified personality disorder”

If this become law in the UK, and it may well to DO so, it’s the thin end of the wedge. Disability groups are concerned about this as it may well be that some of their members get targeted. We unleash a monster if we grant this Bill through.

It is ironic that Dame Ester Rantzen, who came famous for presenting “That’s Life” may become infamous for promoting a faster route to death.