Retired Wigan teacher 'thrilled to bits' as assisted dying bill gets backing of MPs
A retired Wigan teacher with incurable cancer shared his “relief” as assisted dying moved a step closer to being legalised.
More than 300 MPs backed a bill in the House of Commons on Friday that would allow terminally ill adults with a life expectancy of less than six months to end their lives.
With a majority of just 23, the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill completed its first stages in the Commons and moved to the House of Lords on Monday for further debate and scrutiny.
There have been strong views shared both for and against assisted dying, including by Ashton grandad Brian Griffin.
He told the Wigan Observer in November how he supported the bill as he has myeloma – an incurable blood cancer – and may choose to end his own life one day.
Following the bill clearing the Commons, he said: “I was getting very concerned that it wouldn’t get through and I thought to myself that if it doesn’t go through, I’m going to have this awful death and I don’t want that. Many people like me thought the same thing. Thankfully it has gone through.”
Mr Griffin, 73, taught biology at Cansfield, Park and The Byrchall High Schools, becoming head of department and an advanced skills teacher.
But he curtailed his career after being diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2007.
Surgery and chemo tackled that illness, but three years later he suffered a shattered arm picking up just a 3kg weight and doctors discovered he had multiple myeloma.
A stem cell transplant gave him 10 healthy years, but he needed another one in 2021 and knows that second transplants don’t last as long.
The NHS does not offer more than two and Mr Griffin knows that when its effects wear off, only chemotherapy and palliative care will remain available.
While it is now being held at bay thanks to the transplant, Mr Griffin has regular checks with a specialist every four months to find out if the cancer cells have started multiplying.
He said: “Every four months it’s a Damocles thing. I know it’s going to fail eventually, it’s just one of those things.”
And he believes that when it happens, he will have more choice over how he dies thanks to the assisted dying bill.
He said: “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not looking forward to it, but the chances are I will have to go down this particular route. I could save up my money to go to Switzerland or I could suffer or I could commit suicide.
"Thankfully, Kim Leadbeater MP and co have solved that problem for me so I am thrilled to bits at the moment.”
Opponents of assisted dying argue there should be better palliative care available, so people do not feel the need to choose to end their life.
But Mr Griffin said a relative receiving palliative care suffered intense pain before his death, because painkillers were no longer effective, and he does not want to be in the same position.
He said: “At the end of the day there are some people who get to a point when the painkillers cannot lessen the pain because it’s so great. Thankfully, most people don’t get to that stage, but that’s my concern because I don’t want to go through what my relative went through.”
He also disagreed with suggestions that assisted dying would be used against people’s will, saying it instead gave more choice and there are safeguards in place.
Mr Griffin praised the bill’s sponsor Labour MP Kim Leadbeater and Makerfield MP Josh Simons.
He voted in favour of the bill, along with Leigh and Atherton MP Jo Platt, while Wigan MP Lisa Nandy did not vote.
MPs had a free vote on the bill, meaning they decided according to their conscience rather than along party lines.
Mr Simons said: "I voted in favour of assisted dying because people like Brian deserve the choice and the freedom to die how they wish.
"I'm really pleased that we backed this in the House of Commons last week. It's important that MPs stand up and take seriously their responsibility to make hard moral choices.
"Thank you so much to all of my constituents who wrote to me and who I met who expressed their honest and considered views. I respect all in this debate immensely.”
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill was formally introduced in the House of Lords on Monday.
The first reading is procedural and takes place without debate. It is at the next second reading stage that peers will get to discuss the bill in detail.
The Government is neutral on the backbench legislation, which will be taken through the Upper House by former lord chancellor and justice secretary Lord Falconer of Thoroton.
Assisted dying campaigners, including Dame Esther Rantzen, have urged peers not to block the bill, which could run out of parliamentary time if it gets bogged down in the Lords.
But opponents have vowed to fight on at Westminster against what they called a “deeply flawed bill”.
It could face a rocky ride during its passage through the Lords, with critics poised to seek changes by adding further restrictions and safeguards.
The proposed legislation 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.