Stark warning on assisted suicide Bill: ‘I could have killed myself when I wasn’t terminally ill’

A man who planned to commit suicide when he was told he might have just six months to live has shared his trauma at discovering he was misdiagnosed.

When Peter Sefton-Williams was first diagnosed with motor neurone disease, he prepared to go to Dignitas and also drove to clifftop Beachy Head as another “way out of a hopeless situation”. Although he relented, the retired journalist was later informed that he actually had the treatable auto-immune disease multifocal motor neuropathy.

Under the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, patients in England and Wales who are deemed to be terminally ill and have less than six months to live would be allowed to receive help to kill themselves.

‘Fallible’

Sefton-Williams, who was misdiagnosed by two specialists, warned that he could have been “permitted an assisted death while suffering from a mild, and hopefully curable, auto-immune disease”.

I could have thought that was a way out and I would now be dead

He noted others might have claimed “well, he wanted a dignified death. It was his choice to end his own life on his terms”, but he added: “I would have killed myself and nobody would have known that in fact I wasn’t ill at all.”

“Doctors are fallible. It’s no use saying they’re the kind of gold standard and will always get it right, because they don’t always get it right. As my case shows, I could have thought that was a way out and I would now be dead. Whereas, as far as I can tell, there’s very little wrong with me.”

Under Kim Leadbeater MP’s proposals, two doctors and a High Court judge would approve a person’s application to undergo assisted suicide.

Cancer survivor

Katherine Webster, who was told she had months to live from a grade-four brain tumour, is now in remission five years on.

The 52-year-old requires physiotherapy and suffers from memory loss, but she rejoiced that she is doing “remarkably well”.

I was told that I had months to live, not years.

Webster explained: “I was told that I had months to live, not years. Almost five years on from receiving that cancer diagnosis, I try to make the most of life – I live every day as if it’s my last.”

“Rowing is a big passion, so the thought of returning to the river got me through radiotherapy and chemotherapy. After receiving such a shocking prognosis, it is now such a joy for me being out on the river. I can’t believe I’m potentially one of these so-called cancer super-survivors.”

Prognosis

Doctors and palliative care experts have warned that ‘terminally ill’ people who seek assisted suicide could actually have years left to live.

Professor Katherine Sleeman, Laing Galazka Chair in Palliative Care, told The Daily Telegraph that the Department for Work and Pensions reviews its benefits for terminally ill patients every three years — even though they must be expected to die within twelve months to qualify for support.

Senior oncologist Professor Chris Parker also reported that he had recently seen a patient who was given a terminal cancer diagnosis ten years prior.

Parker warned: “I have little doubt that some patients would choose assisted suicide if it was legal, because they were told they had less than six months to live, but in truth, if they had not had assisted suicide, would have lived for years and enjoyed a good quality of life, because I’ve seen patients like that.”