A WOMAN dying from terminal cancer in Whitehill has reignited calls for an inquiry into assisted dying legislation.

Anita Brown, 46, urged MPs to look again at the legislation which imposes a blanket ban on assisted dying ahead of a meeting of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Choice at the End of Life.

The APPG for Choice at the End of Life, chaired by Karin Smyth MP, was convened on July 15 to hear personal stories and expert international opinion regarding the impact of the blanket ban on assisted dying.

Anita was diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer in 2016 and wants the option of an assisted death to end her own life to avoid painful and protracted suffering from her illness.

Assisted dying is illegal in the UK under the Suicide Act 1961. Anyone who assists another to end their own life could be found guilty of encouraging or assisting a suicide, which carries with it a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison.

Anita said: “As a home carer I have seen what cancer can do to people in their last weeks and days. The idea of being sedated for days on end, and my family seeing me like that, terrifies me.

“I know what I want when my own time comes; to have a big party, to say my goodbyes properly, and then slip away quickly. Why shouldn’t I be given that control over my own death?

“The dying people and their families who have suffered because of the blanket ban on assisted dying cannot be ignored any longer, myself included.

“MPs must start listening, and that should begin by announcing an inquiry into the current legislation to allow our voices to be heard.”

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: “The coronavirus pandemic has made all of us confront our own mortality. We have had to come to terms with a sense of powerlessness, fear and anxiety over an uncertain future.

“We have been shocked at how some have died from Covid-19: frightened; isolated; feeling like doctors are making decisions for them, not with them.

“But this is precisely what terminally-ill people already face under the UK’s ban on assisted dying.

“Our dying citizens are denied choice and control at a time they need it most and are instead forced to resort to drastic measures which often leave them dying in secret, alone, terrified and in pain.

“And what were already limited options fraught with risk and stress, such as travelling to Dignitas, have been made even more so by current restrictions.

“As we begin to emerge from the worst of this pandemic, the time is now for a grown-up conversation about the fact we are getting dying wrong in this country, and how we can at last fix our broken laws.The next step must be an inquiry into the full impact of the ban on assisted dying.”