Dame Esther Rantzen has admitted that she is ‘afraid of dying badly’ as she discussed her assisted dying plans ahead of the assisted dying bill being debated in the House of Lords

Dame Esther Rantzen has admitted that she is ‘afraid of dying badly’ as she discussed her assisted dying plans ahead of the House of Lords debating assisted dying bill today.

The terminally ill broadcaster, 85, has tirelessly campaigned to legalise assisted dying since receiving a lung cancer diagnosis in 2023 and just as a two-day debate on the Terminally Ill Adults bill, the TV star has made another plea.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which was passed by the House of Commons in June, aims to give terminally ill people over the age 18 with just six months left to live the option to end their life early. It must be subject to approval by two doctors and an expert panel featuring a social worker, senior legal figure and psychiatrist. Assisted dying is currently illegal in the UK and carries a maximum prison sentence of 14 years.

But for Esther, who has Miriam, 47, Rebecca, 45, and Joshua, 43, as well as several grandchildren, she has insisted that the bill in its current state does not apply to her and she has been ‘making arrangements’ that may see her go to Dignitas in Switzerland, although, due to legal reasons, she would not be able to have her family with her.

Bereaved families will gather outside the Lords on Friday as they prepare for the historic Second Reading of the Assisted Dying Bill(Image: Getty Images)

During a pre-recorded phone chat with Kate Garraway on Friday’s Good Morning Britain, she said: “I’m not afraid of death but I am afraid of dying badly. I’m making arrangements because it’s the only way I can have an assisted death to go to by myself to Zurich, to Dignitas.”

She then issued a heartbreaking plea as she added: “I just wish I’m allowed to say goodbye to my family and for them to see that I have a good death.”

The presenter also feels ‘sad’ at how some people may misinterpret the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill in its current form and begged the House of Lords to give people in her position the ‘choice’ to end their own life on their own terms.

She added: “What makes me sad, Kate, is that some disabled people think that it will apply to them, well, it can’t, it won’t, unless they’re terminally ill with six months or less to live! Please, House of Lords, give us terminally ill patients the hope, the choice that if life gets unbearable – they can ask for help.”

Bereaved families will gather outside the Lords on Friday as they prepare for the historic Second Reading of the Assisted Dying Bill. MPs will still get a final say and look at any changes suggested by peers. This is when the bill will officially become law – unless it runs out of Parliamentary time or peers opposed to it find a way of blocking it. Esther’s words come just one day Louise Shackleton, 58, the widow of a man who took his own life in Dignitas, who now spoke out about the ‘monumental’ day ahead as she planned to join other families outside the Lords.

Campaign group Dignity in Dying said: “On Friday 12th September, as the Assisted Dying Bill faces its historic Second Reading in the House of Lords, dying people and bereaved families will gather in Parliament Square to remind Peers what is truly at stake: compassion, dignity, and choice at the end of life.

Kate Garraway spoke to Esther over the phone in a pre-recorded chat on Friday’s Good Morning Britain(Image: ITV)

“Dying people and bereaved families will stand shoulder to shoulder – holding the faces and stories of loved ones – to bring the debate back to its human core.

“Behind every photo is someone who suffered without choice, someone who died far from home, or someone who took matters into their own hands to control their death, alone and in secret.“

A statement from the group continued “this moment is unprecedented”. It added: “No assisted dying bill has ever come this far in Westminster.

“After clearing the Commons with the backing of a majority of MPs, and with the support of 75% of the public, growing numbers of healthcare professionals, and now parliamentarians, the momentum for change has never been stronger. “

“Friday marks a defining moment at Westminster – one that could finally bring the law closer to the compassion and choice that the public has long called for.“

Meanwhile, chief executive of Care Not Killing, Dr Gordon Macdonald, an alliance that opposes to assisted suicide, said “There are lots of people who every day face death and/or face the death of relatives in hospices and hospitals around the UK.

“And so we do need to look at how we help people have peaceful and dignified deaths but the way to do that is by properly funding palliative care in this country at the moment a third of palliative care funding comes from the NHS. A quarter of the people with cancer don’t get the palliative care they need. “