An MP fought back tears last night as he told the Commons how his terminally ill father gassed himself alone in his car rather than die a “lingering, degrading death” from cancer.
Paul Blomfield said that the 87-year-old former RAF pilot, Harry Blomfield, had “lived life to the full right to the end” but had taken a conscious decision to take his own life last July. There was silence in the Chamber as the Labour MP for Sheffield Central called for a change in the law on assisted suicide which he said would have at least allowed his father to say goodbye. He was one of a series of MPs who spoke from personal experience as the Commons overwhelmingly backed legal guidelines limiting the chances of loved-ones being prosecuted for assisting someone set on taking their own life. The motion, tabled by the Tory backbencher Richard Ottaway, was the first time the Commons has debated the issue of assisted suicide for almost 40 years. An unusually emotional debate heard passionate calls, on one hand, for the Government to launch a consultation on legalizing assisted suicide and, on the other, for legislation to prevent any further steps toward euthanasia.