Esther Rantzen joins assisted dying clinic after terminal lung cancer diagnosis

TV legend Dame Esther Rantzen says she has joined assisted dying clinic Dignitas in Switzerland.

The 83-year-old television presenter was told she had stage four terminal lung cancer earlier this year.

Speaking to the BBC’s Today Podcast, Dame Esther said she does not know how much longer she has left to live.

She said: “I have joined Dignitas. I have in my brain thought, ‘well if the next scan says nothing’s working I might buzz off to Zurich’, but you know, it puts my family and friends in a difficult position because they would want to go with me.

“And that means the police might prosecute them. So, we’ve got to do something. At the moment it’s not really working, is it?”

Assisted dying is banned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and carries a maximum prison sentence of up to 14 years.

While Scotland has no specific offence of assisted suicide, euthanasia is illegal and can be prosecuted as murder or manslaughter. 

It has long been a topic of debate whether assisted dying should be made legal in the UK and Dame Esther’s comments are likely to renew this discussion back into the public sphere again.

The Health and Social Care Committee is due to publish its report into assisted dying and assisted suicide in England and Wales after it launched an inquiry back in December 2022, where it examined the different perspectives surrounding the topic.

Opening up on the podcast as she spoke to Nick Robinson and Amol Rajan, Dame Esther said: “My family say it’s my decision and my choice.

“I explained to them that actually I don’t want their last memories of me to be painful because if you watch someone you love having a bad death, that memory obliterates all the happy times and I don’t want that to happen.

“I don’t want to be that sort of victim in their lives.”

Dame Esther is best known for presenting the BBC show That’s Life! For 21 years until 1994. She also launched ChildLine in 1986, a British counselling service and charity set up to help children and young people. It was also the first national helpline for children in danger or distress.

In 2013, she also launched the Silver Line, which is a charity that helps elderly people suffering from isolation and loneliness.

The legendary TV presenter said she was waiting for the results to come back from one of her scans to make up her mind about whether she will go to Dignitas.

Speaking candidly about her mortality, she said: “I didn’t think I would make it to my birthday (June 22nd). I definitely didn’t think I would make it until Christmas, which I am, it appears.

“Though anything can happen; I live in a forest, a tree can fall on me.

“I’ve got to drop off my perch for some reason, and I’m 83 damn it, so I should be jolly grateful and indeed am.”

At the time of her diagnosis, Dame Esther said it had prompted her to express ‘profound thanks to everyone who has made my life so joyful’.

Dignitas is a nonprofit organisation which provides physician-assisted suicide to members with terminal illness or severe mental or physical illness, supported by independent Swiss doctors.