Dame Prue Leith would choose to die by euthanasia if she was ill or in severe pain after watching her older brother David die in agony in 2012.
Judge Great British Bake Off, 82, is a patron of campaign organization Dignity in Dying despite her son, Tory MP Danny Kruger, 48, who is fighting tirelessly to stop a law allowing assisted death from becoming a reality.
Restaurateur and chef Dame Prue wrote in her will that she would like to die by euthanasia surrounded by friends and family if she is in pain, and if it is legal, after watching her brother David die and how his illness affected her wife and children.
David was diagnosed with bone cancer which left him in excruciating pain and screaming in despair between doses of morphine.
He was repeatedly moved from his home to hospital as he battled recurring bouts of pneumonia, which was treated with antibiotics each time.
Assisted death: Dame Prue Leith, 82, would choose to die by euthanasia if she was ill or in severe pain after watching her older brother David die in agony in 2012
“He realized in the end that the only way to die was to simply refuse the antibiotics, which he was allowed to do,” Dame Prue told the Radio Times. “But what’s happening is your lungs are filling up with fluid, you’re not able to breathe, so that’s how he finally died.”
Dame Prue went on to say how agony David’s death was for her family: ‘His daughter said she sat one night with a pillow in her hands when he was towards the end – so that his breathing was getting very bad and he was obviously in agony – and she was just trying to find the courage to put the pillow over his face. And she said, “I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t kill my father.”
The TV star filmed a Channel 4 documentary on assisted dying with her son Danny called Prue and Danny’s Death Road Trip.
They flew to America and Canada to find out how assisted death legislation had helped people end their lives in some parts of the country.
Danny fears assisted dying could lead to coercion, but Dame Prue says that’s not the case in the US state of Oregon, where you have to be a terminally ill adult who is “mentally capable of taking decision”.
Politician Danny also believes doctors would decide to end lives to save NHS money, saying: ‘If the opportunity exists for assisted death, doctors would be forced to offer it and let it be known that the offer was there.
“The physician might do this on humanitarian grounds, but they would also be aware that if this route is taken for this patient, then resources are freed up for others.”
It comes after Dame Prue previously said opponents of legalizing assisted dying were ‘scaremongers’.
Ruling: Judge Great British Bake Off, 82, wrote in her will that she would like an assisted death if seriously ill and it was legal in the UK at the time
Heartbreaking: She made the decision after watching her brother David die in agony from bone cancer and how his illness affected his wife and children (LR David, the other brother of Dame Prue, James and Dame Prue seen as children)
Opposing opinion: Tory MP for Dame Prue son Danny Kruger disagrees with assisted dying as chair of all-party parliamentary group for Dying Well
Out now: Dame Prue spoke to the new edition of the Radio Times
She rejected the idea that children of terminally ill patients would abuse the process to inherit earlier, despite Danny’s beliefs.
Cookery writer Dame Prue voiced her support for the assisted dying bill in a letter in 2021.
She wrote: ‘Opponents of the bill fear the seizure of children will force dying parents to have their doctors see them off so they can inherit.
‘It’s alarmist. If someone is going to die within six months anyway, which they have to be to qualify for assisted dying, why would someone risk being sued to get the money a few months earlier ? His letter was sent to the Daily Telegraph.
The assisted dying bill would allow sane adults with six months or less to live to legally seek assistance in ending their lives.
Danny is chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for Dying Well which campaigns against reform.
He previously wrote that the campaign for legalization was “overtaken by developments in palliative care”.
On air: The TV star filmed a Channel 4 documentary on assisted dying with her son Danny called Prue and Danny’s Death Road Trip
