English television presenter Dame Esther Rantzen revealed in December she had joined the assisted dying clinic Dignitas, in Switzerland, to hopefully undergo euthanasia as she suffers from stage four lung cancer.
Euthanasia is not legalized in UK law, and therefore her family could be left at risk of prosecution if they do travel with her. The TV star has since revealed that people who live in Zurich have offered to meet her at the plane if her family are unable to come.
Esther Rantzen’s family ‘can be prosecuted’ for traveling to Switzerland with her
Rantzen has backed a petition on assisted dying, which has received more than 200,000 signatures. At the moment, in the UK, euthanasia is illegal and can be prosecuted as murder or manslaughter.
Therefore, if Esther’s family traveled to Switzerland with her, they would be at risk of being prosecuted.
“As you know, signed up with Dignitas,” she said on Good Morning Britain. “But it does mean if I go to Switzerland that my family can’t come with me for fear of being interrogated by the police, which is not what you want your family to go through.”
When asked if she would consider making the journey on her own, the 83-year-old revealed that kind strangers from Zurich said they would meet her on the plane.
“It’s really a decision for my family to make. They might say, ‘The h*** with it. We’re going with you.’ I mean, this whole thing is really to try and save them from a terrible memory,” she said.
“If I knew that was going to be difficult for my family to witness, I would want to be able to ask for help.”
The star says ‘dogs have better deaths than humans’
In a conversation with GMB, the TV star revealed she suffered three tragedies close to each other. Her husband, Desmond Wilcox, her mother, and her dog.
“There’s no question that my dog had the best death,” she revealed. “We discovered he had cancer, and before the symptoms got painful, we put him to sleep,” the star continued.
“We can offer our beloved pets a pain-free death, and we can’t offer it to our beloved family.”
Esther was first diagnosed with cancer in January 2023, and in May of that year she revealed it had progressed to stage four.
“I’ve lived considerably longer than I thought I would,” she told GMB. “Thanks to this odd new tablet I’m on. Every day, we seem to hear about wonderful new ways of treating and protecting people again. So who knows,” she said on whether she thinks a vote for Euthanasia will happen in her lifetime.
“Fingers crossed.”
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