The First Casualty

Janet Eastham writes:

Within months of Labour coming to power, MPs will vote on the assisted dying Bill – one of the most controversial pieces of legislation ever to be laid before the House of Commons.

But, for years, the assisted dying lobby has been using some of Britain’s most beloved soap operas to quietly influence attitudes about the practice.

Dignity in Dying, the leading pro-assisted dying pressure group in the UK, has by its own admission “provided consultancy support on Casualty and Coronation Street storylines”.

In September last year, a major plot line in BBC medical drama Casualty revolved around Jan Jenning, a paramedic played by Di Botcher, helping Gethin West – a Motor Neurone Disease (MND) sufferer portrayed by Robert Pugh – to end his life in Switzerland.

Two months earlier, Coronation Street showed Paul Foreman, another MND sufferer, asking his boyfriend Billy Mayhew, an archdeacon, to help him die.

Before that, Emmerdale ran a high-profile storyline in which Faith Dingle, a beloved matriarch with terminal cancer played by Sally Dexter, overdoses on stockpiled medications and dies in the arms of her son Cain (Jeff Hordley).

On its website, Dignity in Dying said it had “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”.

The previous year’s report stated it had “worked with Emmerdale on the storyline and to secure subsequent media coverage”.

Dr Amy Proffitt, a palliative care consultant, described the lobby group’s influence on TV shows as “deeply troubling”. She said that it risks “scaring the public into believing that pain and suffering is their only future as they approach the end”.

“This is scaremongering of the worst kind and simply not a reality,” she added.

Dr Matthew Doré, another palliative care consultant, criticised the group for “pouring their money into campaigning for legal changes, and into TV soaps to social engineer the population, while sidelining any efforts to improve care for those currently suffering amid severe shortages in social care, the NHS, and palliative care”.

In Scotland, Liam McArthur – the Liberal Democrat MSP who has proposed his own assisted dying Bill – has already declared £15,993 staff support from Dignity in Dying and a £2,694 trip to California.

In Westminster, Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP behind the assisted dying bill, has strengthened ties to Dignity in Dying, with the group’s pink-and-purple banners flanking her at every media appearance.

As Friday’s vote nears, it remains to be seen if the lobby group’s efforts will pay off.

A Casualty spokesman said its 2023 storyline “highlighted the complexity of this sensitive subject and presented a range of views both for and against assisted dying”.

In a statement, ITV said: “Though we consult with a wide variety of organisations when researching our stories we would never allow a charity or interest group to help us script our shows.

“And when we deal with a contentious issue we make sure that both sides of the issue are represented. Emmerdale and Coronation Street have shown other characters who had decided the opposite and opted for palliative care and who died peacefully and naturally.

“Our soaps take part in many current debates about social policy and we are proud to be a small part of the national debate. But we always do so in a balanced way, presenting both sides of the argument and not flinching from the realities of what we portray.”

A spokesman for Dignity in Dying said: “Our position is clear. We campaign for terminally ill, mentally competent adults to have the choice of an assisted death, alongside excellent end-of-life care. We have more than half a million supporters and polling consistently shows an overwhelming majority of people in Britain support the change we are campaigning for.

We fully back Kim Leadbeater’s bill on Choice at the End of Life, which introduces new protections for dying people where currently none exist.”

Ms Leadbeater told The Telegraph: “Dignity in Dying has campaigned on the issue of assisted dying for many years and unsurprisingly I have worked with them over recent weeks.

“I have met many of the families who support their campaign to give dying people choice at the end of life, often as a result of losing loved ones to suicide or having had experience of deeply harrowing and traumatic deaths.

“I have also met individuals who work with Dignity in Dying who are terminally ill and are campaigning for choice and autonomy themselves; it is so important that their voices are heard and Dignity in Dying is one of a number of organisations who enable them to have a voice.

“I have made a declaration in the usual way and would like to pay tribute to the families and individuals involved in the campaign for sharing their very personal stories.”