Labour peer and former EastEnders actor Lord Cashman reveals he considered suicide after husband’s death
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Version 0 of 1. Lord Cashman, a Labour peer and former EastEnders star, has spoken of how he considered committing suicide after the death of his husband. In emotional comments during a House of Lords debate on assisted dying, the former MEP and actor described how his partner Paul Cottingham had died “very swiftly” from a “very aggressive cancer”. "I was absolutely clear that if my husband and partner was to die, I wanted to die with him," he said. Lord Cashman was speaking against an amendment to insert the word “suicide” into the Assisted Dying Bill, which proponents have said would make the new legislation clearer. “I raise this not out of any sentiment or emotion, but for the very clarity that we need when dealing with assisted dying,” he told peers. “I was healthy and wanted to commit suicide to end a healthy life. My partner—my husband—was facing a death that could happen in a week, three days or three months. "To see him almost completely out of his senses because of the morphine, but still aware that he was unable to breathe, offered me clarity enough that I wanted to commit suicide and that my husband, who was dying, needed his death accelerated. “With respect to noble Lords who are proposing this amendment, it will not bring clarity; it will, sadly, do the reverse.”
The Assisted Dying Bill was proposed by Labour peer Lord Falconer and would provide “competent” adults who have less than six months to live with assistance to end their own life if they were to request it. After the debate yesterday the House of Lords voted 180 to 107 against changing the wording of the bill from “assisted dying” to “assisted suicide”. Peers yesterday only managed to address a handful of 150 amendments proposed on the bill, meaning it is unlikely to find the parliamentary time to become law before the general election. Lord Robert Winston warned that the legalisation of assisted dying would make elderly and 'fragile' patients feel obliged to kill themselves. The peer’s partner was a noted human rights activist, and died in October 2014. He was associated with organisations such as the Kaleidoscope Trust, through which he promoted LGBT rights. Lord Cashman played character Colin Russell in BBC soap opera EastEnders. Colin Russell was most well known for taking part in the first on-screen gay kiss in a British soap opera. The peer last year topped The Independent on Sunday’s Rainbow List, which celebrates the achievements of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. Suicide is preventable and anyone who feels affected by issues raised in this article can contact Samaritans. |