The head of Britain’s human rights watchdog led peers in an impassioned plea against the assisted dying Bill yesterday as she tearfully revealed ‘glimpsing the Grim Reaper’ following an ovarian cancer diagnosis.
Baroness Falkner, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, urged the House of Lords to reject the ‘flawed’ assisted dying Bill – despite previously supporting the principle.
It came as a record 190 peers – including former ministers, bishops and a former president of the Supreme Court – were due to speak in a historic Lords debate over two days.
Some 91 Lords spoke in the debate – which lasted six and a half hours without pause yesterday – with two thirds of those opposing the Bill.
Baroness Falkner, who said her ‘remarks are entirely personal’, told peers of her experience with a ‘disregarding and, at best, incompetent NHS’ after she was diagnosed with advanced stage three ovarian cancer last summer.
