Esther Rantzen's Final Note Backs Assisted Dying After Her Funeral

Dame Esther Rantzen, the broadcaster and founder of Childline, left a final message urging supporters of assisted dying to keep pushing for a change in the law. The note was released after her death and after her funeral, the Oxford Mail reported.

Rantzen died at her home in the New Forest on Sept. 30, aged 86. She had been diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2023.

What Rantzen wrote in her final note

According to the Oxford Mail, Rantzen wrote the note in her last days. She said her death would have been different if the law had let her ask for help to die once her life became unbearable. She stressed that she might not have used that option. Her point, she wrote, was that knowing a swift, pain-free death was available would have given her final days and weeks hope and confidence. Her family, she said, would also have been spared watching suffering or a loss of dignity and privacy.

She said she felt denied any choice over her own death by what she called the “current messy criminal law.” She added that she was sorry there was little more she could do now to advance reform for future generations.

Why Switzerland was out of reach

Rantzen explained that she had been too physically frail to make the flight to an assisted dying clinic in Switzerland, even though the Dignitas team had supported her. She thanked the team and wrote that her terminal illness and what she called a cruel law had frustrated both them and her.

A message to campaigners and opponents

She ended by encouraging those who will keep campaigning, especially patients and their loved ones who she said urgently need reform. She promised to do everything she could to help them from beyond her death. She wrote: “nobody wants to shorten life, just to shorten death.”

She also addressed people who opposed reform and blocked the new bill. She told them they would not be haunted by her, and she wrote that she believed they too had the right to choose. But she said they did not have the right to impose that choice on the most vulnerable people, and she described herself as one of the dying, frail and elderly.

Why it matters: the legal debate she leaves behind

Rantzen had become one of the best-known voices for changing the law on assisted dying. Her note frames the issue in personal terms, as one about how terminally ill people and their families experience the final stretch of life, rather than as a question of whether people would take up the option.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which she supported, was introduced in Parliament in 2024 but did not become law. As things stand, as Rantzen described it, the current criminal law offers no route for a dying person to ask for assistance. Her account of being unable to travel to Switzerland illustrates the practical problem she saw for people too ill to go abroad.

Funeral and what comes next

A private funeral was held last week, the Oxford Mail reported. Her daughter, Rebecca Wilcox, described the service as deeply beautiful. She said the family found it hugely comforting that people around the world felt about Rantzen as they did.

A public memorial service is expected to be announced in the future. The family has asked anyone who wishes to honor her memory to donate to Oakhaven Hospice, Childline, The Silver Line or Cats Protection instead of sending flowers.

Source: Oxford Mail