Assisted dying debate terrifying for disabled people, says actress Liz Carr

The black leather sofa in the corner of Dr Ellen Wiebe’s office looks out of place in a doctor’s surgery.

But this is no ordinary clinic. Canadian clinician Dr Wiebe is showing Liz Carr, a comedian, actress and disability rights campaigner, where people sit when they come to end their lives with the help of a doctor.

“They can snuggle up with their loved ones if they want,” says Dr Wiebe. “It’s a good place for some people.”

Carr became a wheelchair user after becoming ill when she was only seven years old.

“Apart from the fact I don’t have the desire, I think probably I would be eligible [for assisted dying] under Canadian law,” Carr suggests to Dr Wiebe.

Dr Wiebe doesn’t disagree – though she does tell Carr she would have to convince her she was “suffering unbearably” in order to be given a cocktail of drugs to end her life.

In Canada, people with a disability can have an assisted death, provided they feel they are suffering intolerably and their condition cannot be reversed.

Carr has been a vocal opponent of assisted dying for more than a decade. But in the last six months, the debate has accelerated, with Scotland set to debate an assisted dying bill this autumn, and Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer saying he would back a UK-wide change to the law.

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