{"id":165876,"date":"2024-11-01T04:29:19","date_gmt":"2024-11-01T04:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/01\/blur-drummer-calls-assisted-dying-law-psychopathic-after-ex-wife-travelled-to-dignitas-alone\/"},"modified":"2024-11-01T04:29:19","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T04:29:19","slug":"blur-drummer-calls-assisted-dying-law-psychopathic-after-ex-wife-travelled-to-dignitas-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/11\/01\/blur-drummer-calls-assisted-dying-law-psychopathic-after-ex-wife-travelled-to-dignitas-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Blur drummer calls assisted dying law ‘psychopathic’ after ex-wife travelled to Dignitas alone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has called the UK’s current assisted dying law “psychopathic” after his terminally ill ex-wife travelled to Dignitas in Switzerland to die alone.<\/p>\n

The 60-year-old supported former music industry and charity sector worker Paola Marra – who he married in the 1990s – as she battled breast and bowel cancer before she flew alone to Zurich in March following a terminal diagnosis.<\/p>\n

She made the decision because the “pain and suffering can become unbearable”, she said in a film released after her death at the age of 53 called The Last Request.<\/p>\n

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Ms Marra made a video to be released after her death<\/span>
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Rowntree told The Guardian<\/strong><\/a> the current legal system showed “absolutely no empathy for the sufferer”.<\/p>\n

He said he was joining calls for a change in the law ahead of the second reading later this month of a bill proposing the legalisation of assisted dying<\/strong><\/a> in England and Wales under strict controls.<\/p>\n

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The Parklife musician said the choice of criminalisation or a slow and uncomfortable death was “brutal” and he was “bloody angry” about the situation.<\/p>\n

“If you’re considering taking your own life, you are to do it isolated and alone, and anyone that is even suspected of helping in any material way can be arrested [and] you can get 14 years in jail,” he told the paper.<\/p>\n

“It’s utterly brutal for the ill person because anyone they tell is potentially at risk of arrest, so they have to creep around like a criminal.<\/p>\n

“Not only that, but when the time comes, if they do decide to die with dignity and end their life at a time of their choosing, and in a way of their choosing, they have to do it unsupported by anyone, on their own, not able to hold anyone’s hand, not able to hug somebody and say goodbye.”<\/p>\n

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Rowntree offered to travel with Marra to Switzerland<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rowntree said he had offered to go to Switzerland with Ms Marra, after trying to persuade her of what he considered a more comfortable death in her home in London, but she said no.<\/p>\n

She changed her mind for a time before later deciding to die alone, and pushed him to back the campaign to change the assisted dying law.<\/p>\n

Although the full text has not yet been published, a second reading is scheduled for 29 November of a private member’s bill that would allow terminally ill adults to request and be provided with assistance to end their own lives – providing certain safeguards and protections are met.<\/p>\n

When it is eventually put before MPs, possibly next year, they will be given a free vote, meaning they can follow their conscience rather than the party whip.<\/p>\n

Dame Esther Rantzen<\/strong><\/a> and broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby have backed the campaign calling for a change in the law.<\/p>\n

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‘This is psychopathic’<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rowntree, whose father John had bowel cancer and died earlier this year, said of the current law: “It is the system washing its hands of difficult problems in a way that I can’t stomach.<\/p>\n

“That’s the whole point of the state. The state can declare war… and if the state isn’t going to take these kind of difficult decisions, what the f*** is the point in having the state?<\/p>\n

“This is psychopathic, where we are now, because the whole point of this [should be] to try to make things easier for the real victim in this – the terminally ill person.”<\/p>\n

The law states a person could face 14 years in prison for accompanying their loved ones to Dignitas, but Crown Prosecution Service guidance says they are “unlikely” to be prosecuted.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has called the UK’s current assisted dying law “psychopathic” after his terminally ill ex-wife travelled to Dignitas in Switzerland to die alone. The 60-year-old supported former music industry and charity sector worker Paola Marra – who he married in the 1990s – as she battled breast and bowel cancer before she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/11\/768x432\/skynews-paola-marra-assisted-dying_6734902.jpg?20241101024231","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[7977,56249,1187,128658,128656,7978,1301,3444,128657,65160],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165876"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":165878,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165876\/revisions\/165878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}