John Stapleton wants to be taken to Switzerland to die if his Parkinson’s deteriorates. The 78-year-old broadcaster admitted he doesn’t want to suffer in the same way his mother did before her death in 2007 – which came six years after being diagnosed with the same illness – and so he’s open to signing up for the Dignitas assisted-dying clinic.
Appearing on ITV’s ‘Lorraine’ on Wednesday, he said: “I take the view that if I’m suffering very badly you have my permission to take me across to Switzerland and do the business as long as it doesn’t get you in trouble.” A new piece of legislation has been proposed to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales for those diagnosed with life-limiting diseases who have been given less than six months to live.
However, Parkinson’s wouldn’t fall under that as the law would not apply to those with physical disabilities or mental ill health. The former ‘Watchdog’ host added: “This new bill, in principal I am for it, but it doesn’t really apply to Parkinson’s people because Parkinson’s doesn’t kill you.”
“You can’t say, ‘In six months you’re going to die from Parkinson’s’ so at the moment it doesn’t really apply to me.”
Stapleton admitted it was “a relief” for himself and his mother when she died because “it was horrible watching her suffer like that”.
The presenter – who is best known for having fronted breakfast television shows like ‘GMTV’ and ‘Daybreak’ in the 1990s and 2000s – recently revealed he had been diagnosed with the progressive brain disorder that affects movement, mental health, and other areas of the body, but had accepted that some sort of issue was “inevitable” given his age.
He told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “You can’t escape these things as you grow older, these kinds of developments are sort of inevitable. You learn to live with it, get on with it and try to be as positive as you can.”