Blur drummer Dave Rowntree has criticised what he calls “psychopathic” assisted dying laws after his terminally ill ex-wife went to Dignitas in Switzerland earlier this year.
The 60-year-old musician said the current legal system showed “absolutely no empathy for the sufferer” after supporting former music industry and charity sector worker Paola Marra, whom he married in the 1990s, as she went through breast and bowel cancer.
Ms Marra made the decision to fly alone to Zurich in March following a terminal diagnosis because the “pain and suffering can become unbearable”, she said in a film called The Last Request, which was released after her death at the age of 53.
She was allergic to powerful painkillers, according to an interview with The Guardian, where Rowntree opened up about the issue.
Rowntree said the choice of criminalisation or a slow and uncomfortable death was “brutal” and added that he was “bloody angry” about the situation.
He told the newspaper: “It is the system washing its hands of difficult problems in a way that I can’t stomach.
“That’s the whole point of the state. The state can declare war … and if the state isn’t going to take these kind of difficult decisions, what the f*** is the point in having the state?
“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.”
The Parklife drummer says his father, John, had bowel cancer and died this year, and he is advocating for the law to change.
He will join calls for a change in the law in the run-up to next month’s publication of a Bill proposing legalisation of assisted dying in England and Wales under strict controls.
Next month, MPs will consider a private member’s bill that would allow terminally ill adults, subject to safeguards and protections, to request and be provided with assistance to end their own lives.
Rowntree’s decision follows presenter Dame Esther Rantzen and broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby speaking on the issue.
The drummer said he had offered to go with Ms Marra to Switzerland, after he says he tried to persuade her of what he viewed as more comfortable death in her London home, and she said no.
However, she did change her mind for a time, before later deciding to die alone, and after pushing him to back the assisted dying law change campaign.
Rowntree, who ran as a Labour parliamentary candidate for Mid Sussex in the 2024 general election, added: “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.”
Crown Prosecution Service guidance says those accompanying their loved ones to Dignitas are “unlikely” to be prosecuted. The law also states a person could face 14 years in prison.
