‘Dying people like me deserve compassion and the choice to end our lives’ ...Middle East

A 39-year-old man suffering with terminal has hailed the “momentous” decision to back assisted dying as it has given people like him the “compassionate choice” to end their life.

Nathaniel Dye, is a primary school teacher with stage 4 bowel cancer. Doctors have given him an official terminal diagnosis of under a year.

Nathaniel described the historic backing of the assisted dying bill by Parliament as a “momentous occasion” although the law will take up to four years to be implemented.

Nathanial who lives in east London, told The i Paper: “It is a little bittersweet because the implementation period could be around four years so I may well not be able to access it myself even if it becomes law.

“But this is not about me – it is about dying people who might have this chance to make a choice. Having that choice would be of such comfort to people.”

The Terminally Ill Adults Bill, which will give terminally ill adults in England and Wales the right to end their own lives, was backed by 314 votes to 291 in the Commons and will now go to the House of Lords for further scrutiny.

Twenty seven Labour MPs voted against the bill including Cabinet ministers Wes Streeting, Shabna Mahmood and Nick Thomas Symonds.

The vote followed an emotionally charged debate which saw MPs recount personal stories involving friends and relatives.

Although passed, there still remains some doubt as to how the legislation will be implemented and in what form it will take in four years’ time.

Nathaniel added: “My personal feelings are that I may or may not want to access assisted dying when the time comes and things get worse, but I want that option there as a choice and for me, assisted dying would be my safety net.

“I still haven’t lost hope that maybe the process of it becoming law will be a bit quicker and if it took two years, maybe I would be able to eke out my prognosis and it would be there for me and I might be able to benefit from it.

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“However, it is not about me – it is about kindness and compassion for dying people and that is more important than one person.

“I may not be able to access it myself but it will be the greatest feeling to see this bill become law.”

In the Lords, it is thought peers may delay the bill.

Peers against the law change feel emboldened to scupper the legislation – even though it was supported by MPs – due to the fact it is not a government bill or linked to a Budget and was not in the Labour Party election manifesto.

Mr Dye, whose stage 4 bowel cancer has spread to his liver, lungs and brain, has stayed determined and positive despite his diagnosis.

The music teacher ran the London Marathon for one more time this year despite having more than 50 tumours in his body as part of his bucket list. He finished the 26.2 mile course in five hours and 49 minutes – while playing the trombone.

Although he is signed off from his main teaching job due to his deteriorating health and retirement is looming, he is still teaching music with light duties when he feels up to it and runs a youth band and is involved with a community brass band.

He has also been awarded an MBE for his work campaigning for cancer awareness and fundraising by taking part in numerous challenges.

“In terms of my spirit, I refuse to get beaten down and if you tell me I have got one year left, I’ll try to give you two,” said Nathaniel. “That is my intent – but I am also a realist.

“The term ‘assisted suicide’ is really quite abhorrent to me actually, because I am anything but suicidal,” he said.

“Assisted dying is not about shortening life. It is about shortening certain death when life has gone. That is very different.

“If I get to the point where there is no light at the end of the tunnel because all treatment options and palliative care have been exhausted, it will become the kindest thing to not be breathing any more.

“Humbly, I would like the choice to ask if we could literally call it a day because there is nothing left.

“As I envisage it for myself, we are talking about the worst case scenario when there is nothing else left. That is what assisted dying is for.”

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Nathaniel was diagnosed with incurable bowel cancer at the age of 36. He shared his cancer story at the Labour manifesto launch as he recounted how he waited more than 100 days for cancer treatment when the Government target was 62 days. He believes there is a chance his cancer may not have advanced and become widespread if he had received treatment sooner.

Nathaniel lost his fiancée Holly to a rare form of ovarian cancer when they were both 25.

He told The i Paper the trauma of watching her life slip away will never leave him and that the last thing she had open on her laptop before she died was a wedding planning spreadsheet as she still believed she would get out of hospital.

Nathaniel’s mother died of the same bowel cancer in 2019 so he knows better than most what it is like to see people dying of cancer, despite some who fear for those in a vulnerable state and the decision they may at the end of their life.

“Some opponents to the assisted dying bill say it should not be available because ‘what about the vulnerable people?’”, he said. “Well one of the things that has made me vulnerable personally is the kind of suffering I might expect at the end of life.

“I know what is coming and I respect the stance for people to have a little bit of control at the end.

“My condition is deteriorating and I am under palliative care, receiving daily morphine, taking tablets twice a day and spending a lot more time in the house and in bed.

“I am not naive, I know it is going to hurt. It is dying, so it can’t not. However, it could happen in a kinder way when the time comes.

“Assisted dying is about kindness and compassion to dying people and I am surprised that is controversial.”

Regarding the historic vote, Nathaniel says although he welcomes it, he knows there is still some way to go. “It is important to avoid complacency because until this becomes law, I am not going to believe it myself knowing how parliamentary process works.

“But it is definitely a huge step of many steps that will eventually produce choice and compassion at the end of life for dying people like me.

“It does feel momentous that history is being made. To have been part of that by campaigning for this feels incredibly special.”

While the law was passed and will progress to the House of Lords, ahead of the vote there was concern over the limited scrutiny for the bill, whether the legislation could be expanded to include undesirable consequences, fears over safeguards and diverting resources from palliative care.

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson has said she is ready to amend the assisted dying Bill to “make it stronger” as it comes to the House of Lords, as she warned of loopholes in its current form.

She said: “We’ve been told it’s the strongest Bill in the world, but to be honest, it’s not very high bar for other legislation.

“So I do think there are a lot more safeguards that could be put in.”

The Royal College of Psychiatrists also has concerns relating to risk factors for suicide, the Mental Capacity Act, and workforce shortages.

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