Actor Hugh Grant has said that assisted suicide campaigner Dr Ann McPherson, who died last week, was “right” to want to give people the right to die.
The film star, who is patron of healthtalkonline.org, a website and charity founded by Dr McPherson, said she was a “tremendous force for good”.
But according to a recent survey by a leading disability charity, most disabled people feel that changing the law would create pressure to “end their lives prematurely”.
Pressure
Scope’s survey revealed that 70 per cent of those with a disability felt that legalizing assisted suicide would put pressure on disabled people and more than a third expressed concern that they would personally experience such pressure.
Richard Hawkes, Chief Executive of Scope, said: “Our survey findings confirm that concerns about legalising assisted suicide are not just held by a minority, but by a substantial majority of those this law would affect.
“Disabled people are already worried about people assuming their life isn’t worth living or seeing them as a burden, and are genuinely concerned that a change in the law could increase pressure on them to end their life.”
“Enough’s enough”
But Mr Grant told The Independent: “If you are around someone who you love, who says they want to die, and they say enough’s enough, you would look on that with great sympathy.
“A person who is compos mentis should be allowed to die rather than be kept alive and in pain, and without having to go off to Switzerland”, he added.
The star of Notting Hill and Love Actually has also become a patron for her campaign group, Healthcare Professionals for Assisted Dying.