Coronation Street: Paul Foreman’s assisted dying dilemma highlights cruelty of UK’s blanket ban, say Dignity in Dying

Coronation Street’s Paul Foreman shares his plan to end his own life in Monday’s episode as he faces a prolonged death from motor neurone disease (MND), an incurable, terminal illness that affects the brain and nerves. After meeting another character with MND, he shares his fears that he will not be able to have control over his death as his illness progresses. Paul asks his boyfriend Billy Mayhew, an Archdeacon, if he will help him die and the couple discuss the legal problems Billy could face if he does so.

Dignity in Dying, the UK’s leading campaign for assisted dying, which calls for a change in the law to allow this option for terminally ill, mentally competent adults, advised Coronation Street researchers on this element of the storyline, providing research, feedback on scripts and personal testimony about the unimaginable choices Paul is contemplating.

Assisted dying is banned across the UK, with a safe, legal option only accessible to terminally ill Brits by travelling to Switzerland. Every year, up to 650 dying people a year take their own lives, while 6,400 a year – 17 people every day – suffer in pain as they die despite the best efforts of end-of-life care. Loved ones can be criminalised for offering compassionate help, which under the Suicide Act 1961 is a crime with a maximum sentence of 14 years in England and Wales.

Sara Fenton, 61, from Hungerford, accompanied her husband Keith, 59, an army veteran, to die at Dignitas, a Swiss assisted dying organisation, in 2017. At first, Sara did not support his plans until Keith, who had Huntington’s disease, tried to take his own life and she realised how serious he was. Sara said:

“Keith’s disease was gradually robbing him of control over his life. He would fall over regularly and choke on his food. It terrified him that things were only going to get worse, but when he first mentioned Dignitas to me I refused to believe it, saying that we would be able to manage. But it soon became clear that no amount of palliative care or support was going to give him the death he wanted. When he attempted to take his own life I was devastated, and I realised I had to support him to die on his own terms.

“Once Keith had the green light from Dignitas, he completely changed. It was like he could focus on living again, knowing that he had a way out of his suffering. While I am glad he was able to have that choice, I believe he would have lived longer if assisted dying had been legal in this country as he had to make the trip while he was still well enough to go. I feel like I have had time with my husband stolen from me because the law forced him to die before he was ready.”

Before the pandemic, on average 50 Brits a year travelled to Switzerland for assistance to die. British membership of Dignitas is at an all-time high, with an 80% increase in the last decade to 1,528 current members. Thirty three Brits had an assisted death at Dignitas in 2022, a 44% increase from 2021. Among several obstacles for Brits accessing this option is the cost (on average £10,000) and the risk of prosecution for anyone assisting or accompanying a loved one.

In the scene in Monday’s episode, Billy says helping Paul die would be against his religious beliefs. While some religious people may oppose the legalisation of assisted dying, a 2019 Populus poll found that approximately 80% of religious people were in favour of law change.

Reverend Canon Rosie Harper, an Anglican priest and member of the Religious Alliance for Dignity in Dying, said:

“As a Parish priest of over 20 years, I witnessed people dying in great pain who begged to be freed from their suffering and end their lives. There has to be a better and more compassionate way for dying people.

“I do not believe that God expects us to suffer, nor is there any condemnation in the Bible for showing compassion. Changing the law will not require anyone to act against their conscience in their own lives, but by standing against law charge you personally are requiring other people to suffer extreme agony on behalf of your own conscience. That is neither moral nor Christian.”

Molly Pike, Media and Campaigns Officer at Dignity in Dying, said:

“Soaps hold up a mirror to modern life: real people like Paul are facing unimaginable choices every day under the blanket ban on assisted dying. As long as we do not have a safe and compassionate assisted dying law in this country, dying people will continue to die in pain, take matters into their own hands or travel hundreds of miles from home at huge expense.

“For those who want it, the option of assisted dying would make all the difference, allowing them to live better knowing that there can be end to their suffering if they need it. It would allow more open and honest conversations, instead of forcing people like Paul to face this alone, without medical support, relying on the support of loved ones who face being criminalised for their compassion.

“With Assisted Dying Bills being considered in the Scottish, Jersey and Isle of Man parliaments, an inquiry ongoing in Westminster, and the British public calling out for law change, this is an issue that isn’t going away. We hope Paul’s story continues to prompt much-needed debate about the devastating reality of the current law for dying people and their families.”

84% of the British public support a change in the law to allow assisted dying as a choice for terminally ill people. Majority support for reform is consistent across the country, age, gender, socioeconomic background, political leaning, among those with and without religious views and those with and without disabilities.

Over 250 million people around the world have access to some form of assisted dying law, including in 11 states in the US, all Australian states and the whole of New Zealand, where the choice is available to terminally ill, mentally competent adults subject to strict safeguards. The French Government is currently preparing an assisted dying bill after President Emmanuel Macron announced plans to legalise assisted dying by the end of 2023, and a special Dáil committee began examining this issue in Ireland this summer.

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For further information and interview requests with case studies and Dignity in Dying spokespeople, please contact Molly Pike, Media and Campaigns Officer at Dignity in Dying, on 07929 731181 or email: molly.pike@dignityindying.org.uk.