Kate Garraway emotional as Dame Esther Rantzen urges peers to back assisted dying bill

Good Morning Britain host Kate Garraway became visibly emotional on Friday after a telephone interview with Dame Esther Rantzen, who urged members of the House of Lords not to block an assisted dying bill currently under debate.

Dame Esther, 85, who was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer in 2023, told viewers she was making arrangements to travel to Dignitas in Switzerland to obtain an assisted death if the law in England and Wales does not change. "I'm not afraid of death, but I am, as someone once said, afraid of dying, I'm afraid of dying badly," she said. "Please, House of Lords, give us terminally ill patients the hope, the confidence, the choice that if life gets unbearable, they can ask for help."

The proposed legislation would allow adults in England and Wales who are terminally ill with less than six months to live to apply for an assisted death. Each application would require approval from two doctors and a panel of experts that, under the draft proposals, would include a psychiatrist, a social worker and a senior legal figure. If approved, the person would be permitted to take an approved substance as part of the assisted death process.

On Friday, nearly 200 peers put their names down to speak on the issue in the House of Lords, registering one of the largest showings for a single debate in recent years and eclipsing the number who registered for the Brexit debate, according to parliamentary records. Parliamentary supporters have said that if the bill secures majority backing in the current stage, it would proceed to the next stage of the legislative process.

Garraway, 58, who lost her husband Derek Draper last year after long-term complications following Covid-19, appeared to pause and blink back tears at the close of the call. The interview was broadcast as lawmakers debated the details of the bill and its proposed safeguards.

Public opinion on assisted dying is mixed and appears sensitive to how the question is framed. Earlier this year, the Daily Mail reported on a poll of more than 5,000 people that found broad support for changing the law in principle but a sharp drop in backing when respondents were told how assisted dying works in other countries. According to that poll, nearly three-quarters of respondents supported changing the law in principle, but support fell substantially when procedural details were explained. The survey also found that nearly 40 percent of people could not correctly identify what would happen if the law were changed, with almost 20 percent mistakenly thinking assisted dying includes hospice care and more than half believing it includes life-prolonging treatment.

Other recent opinion polls have placed support for legalising assisted dying in Britain at between about 60 percent and 73 percent, while some respondents expressed concern about safeguards: roughly six in 10 agreed that it would be difficult to guarantee protection against coercion of vulnerable people, according to the reporting.

Campaigners for assisted dying say the proposed law includes safeguards intended to protect vulnerable people while allowing terminally ill adults to make an affirmed choice about their death. Opponents have raised concerns about potential risks to disabled and vulnerable people and about whether the proposed criteria and checks would be sufficient.

The House of Lords debate continues as peers weigh the bill's criteria, the composition and remit of the approval panel, and the procedures for ensuring consent and protection for those who may be vulnerable. The Good Morning Britain interview with Dame Esther aired as the debate was under way on Friday.