Star Trek star backs assisted deaths

Actor Sir Patrick Stewart has declared his wish to be allowed an assisted death.

The Star Trek star opened up about his decision to become a patron of Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for a change in the law.

He said: "I had a heart procedure five years ago. I was 70 last year and there is something about achieving threescore years and ten, isn't there?

"Then I had had a family member who had been very ill and quite recently I'd heard the story of an illness and a death." He did not want to go into detail about his female friend's death, but said she was "driven to an extreme situation of ending their life in the most ghastly way".

Sir Patrick, diagnosed with heart disease five years ago, said: "I have the strong feeling that, should the time come for me, having had no role in my birth I would like there to be a choice I might make about how I die."

Last week, the BBC was accused of "acting like a cheerleader" for assisted suicide in a documentary presented by author Sir Terry Pratchett. The programme will show the last moments of a terminally ill man at an assisted suicide clinic.