Samantha Smith, from Gosbeck, is the lead Suffolk campaigner for Dignity in Dying and says assisted dying gives people the choice to avoid unnecessary suffering.
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00:00Having lost loved ones in kind of undignified ways unfortunately, so my grandpa a few years
00:07ago now passed and it was extremely upsetting to see how he went downhill and how he ended up
00:16being in like kind of a week before his passing. It's something that I know he wouldn't have wanted
00:26and was kind of expressed as well. Yeah so it's a story I've heard many times for me with my
00:33grandpa only this weekend with someone else with their their mum where that person is literally
00:40watching the person they love fold pieces in front of them be reduced to what is almost like
00:47an animalistic form. So my grandpa was fearful, didn't understand what was going on and was yeah
00:55was like I say like a wild animal terrified and in pain and you just have to stand on the
01:00sidelines helpless just watching and waiting and when that person does then pass
01:10obviously you have a degree of relief because they're not suffering anymore
01:14and that's what you see and sadly that is also what you remember. So you try not to
01:20remember that about them and you remember try and remember all the good times and
01:24but it does stay with you. England are bringing it in in one of the strictest ways compared to
01:30other countries that have gone about it differently and are going about it differently so I feel that
01:38with the safeguards we have in place and us going about it in that manner I don't have this fear of
01:43kind of a slippery slope argument that I know some people fear but then you know worry too
01:51much and you're not going to get out of bed in the morning for fear of what if this happened or what
01:55could happen. I fear I do think if the right safeguards are in place which this bill particularly
02:02has I don't personally have any worries no. Obviously there are many individuals who who do
02:11want more perhaps where it's not a terminal illness but it's more of a debilitating illness
02:16and I while I personally may you know kind of agree or disagree with them as far as you know
02:25dignity and dying are concerned these safeguards are crucial and I feel I feel what's being
02:31proposed at the moment I'd say I have no worries with and I'm very much for. I mean research has
02:38shown a lot of countries that have this in place assisted dying very few people actually use it
02:44it's more just peace of mind that it's there should they need it and just that alone is normally
02:51enough for people to be kind of content and very few people actually do end up needing it so it's
02:59that choice of having it sometimes more than actually yeah how many people actually need it
03:06or use it. Assisted dying should not and will not as far as I'm concerned replace palliative care
03:14so palliative care should have obviously you know money invested into it and to ensure it's the best
03:20of the best and that's what most people will be happy with comfortable with and and and will be
03:26supported by but it's just having that option where if palliative care isn't enough which
03:33it has been shown and people have seen firsthand it doesn't isn't enough people are still begging
03:39to be let go or in pain that can't be controlled with pain relief it is a highly emotive topic
03:46and I think you know beliefs and religions and things come into it as well
03:52and and obviously they do have to be respected but while they have to be respected it's
03:58why deny someone that option for somebody else's belief
04:04but yeah I mean I can't think of many more emotive subjects.