The families heartbroken by assisted dying bill delay

A delay to the Isle of Man's assisted dying bill will mean more people will suffer, campaigners have said.

The claim came after a letter from the UK's Lord Chancellor David Lammy asked for changes to be made to the legislation before it could receive Royal Assent.

The Ministry of Justice said key legal protections, while acknowledged, were not written directly into the Assisted Dying Bill 2023.

Millie Blenkinsop-French, who has been campaigning for the law change for decades, said the hold up was "insulting to the people on the island".

The 82-year-old campaigner said the delay was not just a constitutional question, but a moral one.

"More people are suffering. More people will suffer the longer it takes," she said.

"Nobody in their right mind would want anybody to suffer the way my son suffered before he died.

"When you watch your child being eaten alive by cancer… you wouldn't do that to your dog," she added.

Blenkinsop-French said the delay was difficult to accept.

"I'm so frustrated and angry and insulted… insulted that they think we haven't got the intelligence to take this forward ourselves," she said.

Blenkinsop-French's campaign began 50 years ago, long before the issue reached the Manx parliament.

It started with a conversation she had never forgotten.

"I'm not afraid of dying," her brother told her, adding: "It's how I die that I'm afraid of."

"That kind of stuck in my mind ever since," she said.

In her 30s, she came across an article on voluntary euthanasia and immediately felt compelled to act.

Half a century later, the Assisted Dying Bill 2023 passed in March 2025, a historic moment that made the Isle of Man the first in the British Isles to approve such legislation.

"I thought that was it," she said. "I thought that was done."

She questioned why a process that normally took three to six months had stretched beyond a year, and why decisions appeared to rest outside the island.

The law cannot come into force without Royal Assent, and concerns raised by the UK government mean further changes are now required.

Blenkinsop-French's sentiments were echoed by fellow campaigner Sue Biggerstaff.

"I was absolutely gutted," she said. "I'm in a bit of despair at the moment… I just feel like I want to sit and cry."

Sue's campaign was driven by the death of her husband, Simon, who had motor neurone disease (MND) and died in 2022.

"What my husband went through, nobody should go through," she said.

"He was in agony, begging for it to stop for two weeks… and nobody should be in that position," she continued.

Like Blenkinsop-French, Biggerstaff believed the campaign had reached its conclusion when the bill passed.

"I can remember I broke down and cried then… it was wonderful news."

But the continued delay left her questioning the process.

"This was the will of the people and the will of parliament," she said, adding: "For it to now be held up by someone else's government is completely wrong."

"I am English… and I'll be honest I'm ashamed to be English at this current time. It's absolutely disgraceful the way it's being held up."

At the heart of her argument was the belief that terminally ill people should have control over their final days.

"When that quality of life is completely gone, you should have that freedom of choice," she said.

"If it fails… people like Simon are just going to continue to suffer and that's so wrong," she added.

"No one has the right to tell another human being how long they could and should suffer."

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