Blur’s Dave Rowntree calls UK assisted dying laws “psychopathic”

Blur‘s Dave Rowntree has called UK laws on assisted dying “psychopathic” as he has opened up about his ex-wife’s decision to pursue a medically-assisted death.

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The Blur drummer has spoken out for the first time on his ex-wife Paola Marra’s assisted death. Marra, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017 and terminal bowel cancer in 2020, made the decision to end her life at Switzerland’s Dignitas, a nonprofit organisation specialising in end-of-life care options and assisted deaths.

Marra made the decision to pursue a medically-assisted death due to the uncertainty and probable pain of death by bowel cancer, along with her allergies to powerful painkillers. She passed away at Dignitas in March this year aged 53.

Now, Rowntree has called end-of-life care options for people enduring extreme suffering as “brutal”, adding that the criminalisation of assisted dying made him “bloody angry”. He has made the remarks ahead of a bill to be published next month calling for the legalisation of assisted dying in England and Wales – under strict conditions.

“This is psychopathic, where we are now, because the whole point of this [should be] to try to make things easier for the real victim in this – the terminally ill person,” he told The Guardian.

When asked whether laws on assisted dying may lead to “state-sanctioned killing”, Rowntree (a former practising lawyer) responded: “I certainly wouldn’t support any bill that allows anyone to kill anyone else.”

He added that current laws for terminally ill adults wanting control over their own deaths made them “pariah[s]”, continuing: “If you’re considering taking your own life, you are to do it isolated and alone, and anyone that is even suspected of helping in any material way can be arrested [and] you can get 14 years in jail.

“It’s utterly brutal for the ill person because anyone they tell is potentially at risk of arrest, so they have to creep around like a criminal. Not only that, but when the time comes, if they do decide to die with dignity and end their life at a time of their choosing, and in a way of their choosing, they have to do it unsupported by anyone, on their own, not able to hold anyone’s hand, not able to hug somebody and say goodbye.”

In other news, Rowntree recently named what he thought was the best Blur album “by quite a long way”.

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