Manx campaigners have fought for years to change the law (Image: Humphrey Nemar)
Bereaved families have celebrated after the Isle of Man became the second Crown Dependency to legalise assisted dying. Historic legislation received Royal Assent on Tuesday following years of campaigning by locals including Sue Biggerstaff, 66. Her husband Simon died from MND in May 2022. She said: “Simon would have been eligible under this law, and I know he would have wanted the choice.
“It’s too late for him, but it isn’t too late for the next family. Knowing that no one else on this island will be forced to go through what Simon went through means everything to me.”
Within a few months, Simon went from walking his dog Ella to being paralysed from the next down, unable to speak and in agonising pain.
Sue shared his story with members of the House of Keys in Tynwald as they debated the legislation. She added: “He was such a proud, active man, and motor neurone disease took everything from him so quickly. By the end he couldn’t move, he could barely speak, and he was in so much pain that he would cry out.
“He pleaded with me to make it stop, and there was nothing I could do. Nobody should have to watch someone they love die like that, and nobody should have to die like that.”
Sue Biggerstaff shared her husband Simon’s story to campaign for change (Image: Sue Biggerstaff)
Sue paid tribute to the parliamentarians who backed the law and Dr Alex Allinson MHK, who introduced the bill in 2023.
The new law will permit assisted dying for adults who have lived on the island for at least five years, have a terminal illness with a life expectancy of 12 months or less, and who have a clear and settled intention to end their life.
The Manx Department of Health and Social Care is implementing updated capacity legislation, which will be a vital safeguard for the assisted dying service.
Further consultation, regulations and codes of practice will be developed before the service becomes available.
Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said: “Today is a historic and deeply emotional day for the Isle of Man, and above all for the families who made it happen.
“Dying Manx people now have the reassurance that, if their suffering becomes unbearable, they will not be abandoned to pain, fear or desperate alternatives.”
The milestone comes after a similar bill – backed by the Express Give Us Our Last Rights crusade – was rejected by MPs following almost two years of parliamentary debate in Westminster. An assisted dying bill also received Royal Assent in Jersey in July.
Ms Wootton added: “Terminally ill people in Douglas and St Helier will soon have a choice that is denied to dying people just a short journey away in Liverpool, London or Cardiff. That is not a sustainable position.
“The question for Westminster is no longer whether assisted dying can be safely legislated for: the Crown Dependencies have answered that and a majority in the Commons agree that dying people should have choice.
“The question now is how much longer dying people in England and Wales will be made to wait. It is a matter of when, not if, safe, compassionate change will come.”
