A good death: Cambridge’s Julian Huppert discusses assisted dying following his mother’s experience

Opinion | Dr Julian Huppert, the former Liberal Democrat MP for Cambridge and founder director of the Intellectual Forum at Jesus College, Cambridge, shares his view on voluntary assisted dying.

My mother had a wonderful life. She was a brilliant psychologist, championing well-being, mindfulness, and positive psychology. She was an inspirational mentor, a keen mountaineer, and a great mum. But she died in August, from metastatic breast cancer.

She grew up in Sydney, Australia, and after a career here in Cambridge, moved back 12 years ago. When her cancer spread to the brain, bone, and stomach, there was nothing more that medicine could do to help her, and she was released home, terminally ill. But because of recently introduced laws in New South Wales, she was able to take advantage of the opportunity for Voluntary Assisted Dying.

It meant a huge amount to her to be able to have control of her death. She did not want to have to be in pain, or less mentally present, or too exhausted to enjoy living. She wanted to be able to end her life, calmly and with dignity, in a place and time of her choosing. She was absolutely delighted when she found out it would be an option for her, and it removed her biggest fears about her impending death. She was never rushed into the death – there was about 2 ½ months between her approval, and her decision that the time had come.

I will always be sad that she died, and wish medical science had been able to provide her with a cure. But I will always be grateful that she was able to die how and when she chose. She died in her bedroom at home, with my brother, her sister and I with her. She died listening to music of her choice, when she was ready, having had her last drink. She had been able to speak to those friends loved ones she wanted to speak to, giving her last thoughts and wishes to her beloved grandchildren. I had a chance to say a proper goodbye. Her last words were ‘Love lasts longer than life’.

I was already a supporter of assisted dying, but the experience of living through it and seeing just how much it improved the end of Mum’s life has made me even more certain that it should be allowed for others who want it. Pneumonia used to be known as the ‘old man’s friend’ because it provided for a relatively painless death; surely we can provide a more graceful ending.

Assisted dying has been considered in Parliament on many occasions, with several Parliamentary inquiries into it. It is allowed in an increasing number of places around the world. Survey after survey shows it to be strongly supported by the public. It was high time that a Bill to legalise it was presented in Parliament.

By a coincidence of timing, just a few days before the debate, the centre I run at Jesus College, Cambridge, had a long-planned event with the Nuffield Council on Bioethics. They had had run a Citizen’s Jury and a pair of large public polls to investigate in detail public opinion about this topic. Their results were clear that the public support the right to assisted dying, and I was really pleased that MPs followed that in their historic vote.

The next few months will now see careful discussion in Parliament of the legislative details – how do we balance the proposed safeguards, which are already the strongest in the world, with ensuring that it is available for those who want it, without excessive barriers. People who are dying do not want to spend their last days and weeks dealing with legalistic detail when what we’re trying to do is to empower them to have the best ending that they can have.

I hope there will also be a separate, parallel, conversation about how to improve palliative care. Some have suggested that there can only be one or the other, but clearly the best outcome is good quality medical treatments where they are possible, then really good palliative care, and then the option to have an assisted death at the end.

Of course, no one should be forced into an assisted death that they do not want. But equally we should not deprive dying people of this opportunity to decide how and when their life should end, under their control, and with dignity.