The Vicar of Dibley star, 68, who said last month that the assisted dying bill was a “no-brainer”, has admitted a change of heart after learning more about it
The Vicar of Dibley star said she recently had a change of heart on the assisted dying bill after learning how it could hit the “poorest” hardest (Image: Ken McKay/ITV/Shutterstock)
Dawn French has spoken out about her fears that an assisted dying law could hit the poorest people hardest – leaving them feeling like a “burden” with “nobody to speak on their behalf”.
The Vicar of Dibley star, 68, became one of the law’s biggest celebrity backers last month when she branded the lack of legal assisted dying in the UK “merciless” and a “no-brainer”.
But in a new interview, she revealed she has now had a change of heart after learning about the potential impact on society’s poorest.
“When it comes to the assisted dying bill, I cannot understand how we can’t be merciful,” she said. “But I also don’t know enough about it. I know it’s nuanced. I know it’s complicated.
“There would have to be lawyers and family and doctors – and the agency of that actual person. Everybody would have to agree, and it would have to be very watertight.”
The French & Saunders star and author, who was speaking on Simon Mayo’s Books of the Year podcast, admitted she had come to doubt her position recently after hearing politician-turned-broadcaster Rory Stewart‘s “very interesting point”.
“Rory said his fear is that if [the bill] does go through – like so many social constructs like this, big laws like this – poor people will be the people that suffer,” she said. “They’ll be left out, they will feel like they’re a burden. They will feel like they have to go. There won’t be anybody to speak on their behalf.”
Dawn – who was married to fellow comedian Lenny Henry for 26 years until 2010 and is now married to charity executive Mark Bignell – added: “I know there’s the religious stuff; I know the moral stuff.
“But I had never considered the social injustice it might bring. I had to have a second thought about that. And I need to investigate it a bit further.”
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill collapsed in April after running out of time in the House of Lords, where peers tabled more than 1,200 amendments.
But campaigners have vowed to keep fighting, and Labour MP Lauren Edwards has now brought a fresh bill before Parliament, with MPs expected to vote on it in the autumn.
Dawn went on to describe the “beautiful” palliative care given to her mother, Roma. The social care worker and charity pioneer died 13 years ago, aged 77, following a gruelling battle with lung cancer.
“She said to us, I’m not scared of dying at all… I’m scared of not being able to breathe – which was gradually what was happening. This wonderful woman walked into the room and said, ‘I’m the head of the palliative care team.’
“She said, ‘Now, let me do my job. What would you like to happen, Roma?’ And my mum said, do you know, I am so tired now. I want to go to sleep and I don’t want to wake up. She said, ‘then so be it.’
“My mum had time to gather us all together. We all said our goodbyes. We had a few laughs – I can’t believe we did, but we did.”
Dawn, whose father Denys, an RAF engineer, took his own life aged 45 in September 1977, when she was 19, added: “My mum had agency over what happened. It was all controlled by her, but with respect from this wonderful woman. So many people don’t have that.”
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