Cancer patient warns assisted suicide ‘writes off’ the terminally ill

A self-described “cancer thriver” has warned that assisted suicide could cause terminally ill people to be “written off”.

Councillor Rue Grewal was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2017 which is now stage four. It caused her to spiral into despair, and she is certain she would have chosen assisted suicide then if it had been available to her.

Now she is a district councillor and works with the cancer support charity One Vision. She has spoken against assisted suicide, criticising its lack of safeguards for terminally ill people struggling with their mental health.

Period of despair

Cllr Grewal explained that following her diagnosis: “I didn’t even want to do my treatment. My mental health was so bad”.

She described going through “a moment – or period – of despair that felt permanent, but wasn’t”, and said she understood how easily a person can fall into thoughts “that it would be better – for you, for everyone – if you just slipped away”.

She added: “I just don’t want people to be written off and think that’s the easy option”, and shared that she “would have gone down that road”.

The councillor expressed her anger that MPs voted Leadbeater’s assisted suicide Bill through the House of Commons, saying it causes her “deep, visceral, personal fear”.

Preying on the vulnerable

Right To Life UK Spokeswoman Catherine Robinson said: “Councillor Grewal, like many other people with serious illnesses or disabilities, recognises the acute threat that the assisted suicide Bill imposes on them.

“It is completely understandable that in the process of coming to terms with a serious diagnosis, someone might experience despair and feelings of being a burden.”

She continued: “This is a clear reason why the legalisation of state assisted suicide is so dangerous, because it preys upon those in a vulnerable state, whether intentionally or otherwise.”

House of Lords

Kim Leadbeater’s dangerous assisted suicide Bill will next be debated in the House of Lords, where Peers have pledged to fight against it.

Baroness Monckton MBE, whose daughter has Down’s syndrome, said she was “petrified” at the lack of protections in the Bill for those with learning disabilities, branding it “breathtakingly cruel and ignorant”.

Baroness Campbell of Surbiton, a founding member of Not Dead Yet, warned that disabled people’s lives “will be at great risk if the Bill passes into law”, while disabled Peer Lord Shinkwin feared the proposals ‘puts a price on his head’.