Source: The Guardian, by Juliet Rix

Giving people control over how and when they die would reduce unavoidable suffering, says the chief of one of the largest hospices in England.

Mark Jarman-Howe: ‘Even the very best palliative care has its limits. That isn’t failure – that’s reality.’ Photograph: Martin Godwin/The Guardian

“We are failing our patients by not engaging openly and honestly with the issue of assisted dying,” says Mark Jarman-Howe, chief executive of St Helena, the largest hospice in the east of England. “We have to end the climate of fear that surrounds discussion of this in the hospice and palliative care sectors, or more than 6,000 people a year will continue to die in avoidable suffering.”

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