Assisted dying should be ‘gradually’ extended to dementia, author Ian McEwan says

Author Ian McEwan said legalised assisted dying should be gradually extended to people with dementia.

Speaking at a public book event in London on 28 January, he criticised attempts to block the UK’s assisted dying bill, citing more than 1,000 amendments.

Supporters believe it is near impossible for it to pass the House of Lords before the end of the session in May due to alleged filibustering.

If passed, the bill would legalise assisted dying in England and Wales for adults with less than six months to live.

“I like it when some bishop says on the radio: ‘It’s the thin end of the wedge,’ and I think yes, it is the thin end of the wedge,” said McEwan, who is a patron of Dignity in Dying.

“Certain groups are missing from it, such as those with dementia. It has to be physical pain.

“My guess is that if we pushed it through with all the protections around it – of doctors and dispassionate people making judgements – we’ll look back on this and think, ‘Why did we ever let people die in agony?'”

Asked if he would add an amendment to extend assisted dying to dementia sufferers, McEwan said: “Gradually, yeah, I would. But I think it does require a lot more thought and the idea of living wills.”

“My mother used to say to me: ‘If I ever become really terrible, I’d like you to finish me off.’ But of course, that’s to commit murder as things stand. Imagine standing up in court and saying: ‘Well, she did say when we were on the beach 20 years ago…'”

McEwan spoke about dementia’s impact on his family.

His mother Rose had dementia, as well as his brother-in-law and another close family member.

“By the time my mother was well advanced and could not recognise anyone, she was dead. She was alive and dead all at once.

“It was a terrible thing. And the burden on those closest is also part of the radioactive damage of it all.”

McEwan was speaking at St Martin-in-the-Fields church in central London, as part of its Conversation series, discussing his latest book, What We Can Know, in which dementia is a major theme.

He has also written about dementia in previous novels, Lessons and Saturday.