Last Rights

Why does the UK abandon dying people and outsource this problem to facilities in Switzerland while legislators across the USA, Canada and Australia have drafted laws to give dying people choice over how and when they die? Sarah Wootton, CEO of the campaign group Dignity in Dying, explains why assisted dying's time has come. Drawing parallels with issues such as women's suffrage, reproductive rights and equal marriage, Wootton exposes the hypocrisy of the arguments put forward by those who oppose change and examines how a broken status quo has been imposed against the wishes of dying people for too long.

Sarah Wootton is Chief Executive of Dignity in Dying and has led the campaign for choice at the end of life from the margins to the mainstream in Parliament, the Courts and the media. She established and is also Chief Executive of Dignity in Dying's sister charity, Compassion in Dying, which empowers people to take control of their end-of-life treatment and care under the current law. She is a trustee of the Sheila McKechnie Foundation and previously led campaigning at the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Family Planning Association.