Cancer patient: ‘MPs should offer people hope not state-sponsored suicide’

An Australian man, who has already outlived his cancer diagnosis by three years, has travelled across the world to plead with UK MPs to think again before legalising assisted suicide.

In a visit arranged by The Christian Institute, Stephanus Breytenbach met with parliamentarians at Westminster this week and urged them to vote against Kim Leadbeater’s controversial assisted suicide Bill.

Diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given just a few weeks to live back in 2022, Mr Breytenbach believes legalising assisted suicide in the UK will rob those with a terminal diagnosis of hope and lead them to contemplate asking for help to die.

‘Help to live’

Reflecting on the moment when he was told he only had a short time to live, Stephanus told The Times: “It’s a shocking diagnosis, you’re emotionally completely down, going through a rollercoaster. Which means you’re very susceptible to prompts and people’s opinions.”

He warned: “When you’ve had a diagnosis like that, and a doctor comes and suggests to you assisted dying, or a family member suggests it, I think most people would seriously consider it. And that’s wrong, in my opinion, it’s not the right time to think about those things.”

Stephanus Breytenbach speaking exclusively to The Christian Institute earlier this year.

A cancer survivor encouraged Stephanus to “set small goals”, he explained, “And so I would set a goal to live for Thursday. You’re lying in bed Tuesday morning and you’re ­suffering through pain and you just threw up and you’re thinking, ‘why am I feeling so down and exhausted?’

“But you get to Thursday, and celebrate you made it. And you set the next goal for Sunday. You need to give people hope, you need to help them to live.”

you’re very susceptible to prompts and people’s opinions

Back palliative care

Mr Breytenbach lives in Victoria, Australia, where assisted suicide is legal and marketed as Voluntary Assisted Dying. He describes the palliative care he received as “great”, adding: “I’d rather the government give you support and help in those times”.

Within weeks of his diagnosis, he lost about six stones in weight, had numerous tumours on his liver and regularly needed large amounts of fluid draining from his abdomen. Now, much improved, he receives chemotherapy every three weeks.

My kids would have been orphans.

Stephanus, who has teenage children, also cared for his wife as she lay dying of cancer in 2023. He observed: “If I would have chosen assisted suicide, look at what I would have missed. My kids would have been orphans. I’ve got chemo, and my cancer has spread a bit, but I’ve got a good quality of life.”

He added: “One of the arguments that the politicians use is that there are people who want to die while their family can remember them the way they were, not remember them sick. And I told my kids this and they think it’s a crazy idea. Why would you not want to stay alive and be with them all the way to the end?”

Beleaguered

In its current form, Leadbeater’s increasingly unpopular Bill would allow patients deemed to be terminally ill and with less than six months to live to receive help from a doctor to kill themselves.

But there is growing opposition to it among those expected to deliver its provisions. The Royal College of Pathologists announced its members are “not qualified” to assist, more than 1,000 doctors warned that it is unsafe, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists said the “inadequate” proposals should not become law.

MPs are expected to vote again on the Bill at Third Reading on 20 June.