Documentary legend Jonathan Dimbleby wants to see a change in the law after watching his brother die from motor neurone disease (MND).
Broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby described the Lords as “inhumane” for trying to block the Assisted Dying bill.
The documentary maker is now urging the public to help stop this “travesty” and sign a petition forcing the “Government to do everything in its power…to ensure the unelected Lords cannot block them.”
He points out there have been more than 1,000 amendments tabled to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, most by just a handful of Lords. So far almost 90,000 have signed the petition. At 100,000 signatures it will be considered for debate in Parliament
King Charles’ pal has described the current laws in the UK as “anachronistically cruel as capital punishment.”
The broadcaster’s younger brother, Nicholas, died with debilitating motor neurone disease (MND) in 2024 aged 77. He had been diagnosed almost exactly a year before but ended up unable to walk, eat and struggled to talk.
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In a statement released through Dignity in Dying, the historian, 81, said: “This is a critical moment. Only four days remain for the House of Lords to return the assisted dying Bill to our elected MPs in the Commons. “By the end of this time, peers are supposed to have completed their examination of more than a thousand proposed amendments, determined which should proceed and which should be thrown out, and have had a final vote on the Bill. “Yet we are witnessing a travesty of this procedure. After an unprecedented ten days of debate, hundreds of amendments have yet to be discussed.
“At the current rate there is a grave risk that there will be no final vote before the end of the parliamentary session in May. In that case, the current Bill would be brought to a juddering halt.”
He urged the public to sign the petition to “ensure that the unelected Upper House does not thwart the will of the people”.
“My brother, Nicholas, recently died from motor neurone disease. There is no cure and, as yet, no treatment for MND which is invariably fatal. In the final months of his life, with his body rapidly wasting away,
“Nicholas was unable to speak or to swallow. But he had a clear mind. While Nicholas would never dream of speaking for anyone else with this disease, the loss of control was humiliating, the indignity was hard to bear. It took rare courage.
“A courage which should not be forced on anyone. I do not know whether he would have chosen an assisted death but I do know he believed passionately in the right to choose and wanted me to argue for it. “Throughout this campaign, I have been greatly moved by the quiet determination of those who are terminally ill and of those who love them.
“They have spoken in public with extraordinary dignity about their suffering. They have asked only that Parliament listen and act. “I respect the views of those who oppose the Bill and would never exercise the right to choose an assisted death for themselves. But I have no respect for their attempt to deny that right to the rest of us. That is not only undemocratic, it is inhumane. “
He added: “The progress of the Bill so far has been blocked by a handful of Peers whose opposition to it is absolute and unyielding.
“They have not only tabled many hundreds of amendments but they are using these to prolong the proceedings and thereby to prevent their colleagues from having a final vote. “This is filibustering: a series of wrecking amendments designed to frustrate the expressed will of our elected MPs in the Commons. I believe this is wrong in principle but I also know what it would mean in practice. “
“To ensure that the assisted dying Bill become the law of the land, we must not give up the campaign.”
If you wish to sign the petition it can be found here https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/752673
