Image – Shutterstock: Dame Prue Leith in 2023
Dame Prue Leith has said she is “plotting and planning” her suicide in case Parliament fails to pass the assisted suicide bill currently before the House of Lords.
Writing in The Mail on Sunday, the 86-year-old chef and entrepreneur admitted she is researching “the surest, most painless and simplest way” to end her life if the law is not changed in time. She said she hopes legislation will be put on the statute book “in the next few years” so that none of her relatives risk arrest for helping her “get out of an intolerable life.”
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would allow adults in England and Wales who are judged to have less than six months to live to apply for medical assistance to facilitate suicide. It is currently undergoing scrutiny in the House of Lords after MPs backed it in principle last year.
Dame Prue, a patron of Dignity in Dying, has long campaigned for legalisation following the death of her brother from bone cancer in 2012. She has described his final days as “agonising” and believes that, had assisted suicide been legal, he could have died peacefully at home, surrounded by loved ones, with sufficient pain relief to spare him prolonged suffering.
In her column, she also argued that society accepts euthanasia as a merciful act for a dying dog, but refuses the same “compassion” to humans.
However, her remarks also highlight some of the tensions at the heart of the debate. She expressed her concern that the process for obtaining permission could become “so time-consuming, bureaucratic and soul-destroying” that some patients might still be driven towards suicide rather than navigating the official system—an underhand admission that she desires weaker safeguards.
Her comments also carry an unusual personal twist in that Dame Prue’s son, Danny Kruger MP, has emerged as one of the leading voices in the House of Commons opposing the assisted suicide bill, warning that it risks putting pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives early, and sitting on its House of Commons committee as the leading opponent.
Critics of the legislation argue that safeguards are not yet strong enough to prevent coercion, whether through financial strain, feelings of being a burden, or subtle family expectations. Questions have also been raised about how any assisted suicide service would be funded and whether it could further weaken already stretched palliative care.
Commenting on the situation, Peter Kearney, SPUC’s Communications Manager, has said, “Dame Prue’s openness about her desire to end her life is a worrying sign. Seen from many who favour a change in the law, it continues the fear-mongering tactics used by the assisted suicide lobby to scare the public into supporting the practice. In reality, jurisdictions that have implemented a state sanctioned suicide programme have seen palliative care provisions fall, hours-long excruciating deaths as a result of the injected poison, and expansion beyond solely terminal illness. Assisted suicide is not about pain reduction, it’s about cheapening human life to be something disposable. We will fight against that at every chance.”
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