A painless death for everyone, that's what these campaigners in Bath in the South of England are fighting for. They are supporting a proposed law that enables terminally ill people to end their own life. It's a cause close to Sophie Pandit's heart.

"When my mother wanted an assisted death, even though we knew it was against the law, our morality was to support her, and enable her to have a death free of suffering," said Sophie.
 
Her mother Ann had been diagnosed with a rare brain disorder, that would eventually make her completely dependent on others. She tried to commit suicide but failed. She then decided to travel to Switzerland, where assisted dying is legal. Her three children went with her, knowing this would be their final days and hours as a family. Their mother died before her time, thinks Sophie because she needed to be fit enough to make the journey.

"If assisted dying had been legal in this country, she would have known that she could die at home in this country. She could die with her friends and family around her should she wish. And it also would have meant that she most likely would have died later on in her illness," said Sophie.
 
However, some people are against a change in the law, such as disability rights campaigner Phil Friend. He is afraid that disabled people could be coerced into an assisted death, should their condition deteriorate.
 
"Society sees disabled people as people who are dependent, as people who are vulnerable. And basically what that means is that they take a view that my life isn't as worth living as theirs is. So if I get really ill, it would be a kindness, wouldn't it, to let me go," he said.
 
The new law proposes safeguards against such coercion, two doctors and a judge would need to approve the death. But still, this does not convince Phil. He has lived with a disability and the resulting discrimination that he feels since he contracted Polio at the age of three. He feels he needed to fight for his rights constantly, and does not completely trust the medical establishment.

"How are two doctors who don't know me supposed to assess whether I'm being coerced or not? Whether people are leaning on me to take the medication? They won't. And doctors aren't trained to look at coercion. That's a very skilled job."
 
The proposed law puts his autonomy to live against someone else's autonomy to have a pain-free death, says Phil Friend. He would rather have resources diverted into better palliative care. Meanwhile, Sophie Pandit is convinced that it is cruel to deny people a death without suffering. A moral dilemma that UK lawmakers will have to examine very carefully.