Dawn French’s assisted-dying novel is as deathly awful as it sounds

Alleged comedian Dawn French is back in the headlines. No, she has not produced another pompous clip downgrading Hamas’s 7 October massacre to a ‘bad fing’. Instead, she’s forced an entire novel on us advocating assisted suicide. The blurb to Enough markets the grim tale in hideously twee terms: ‘Joyfully human, darkly funny and unexpectedly life-affirming.’

But it is death, not life, that the story dwells on. Enough’s protagonist, Etta, like French herself, is a 68-year-old mother and grandmother with no serious health conditions or life complaints. Despite this, she gathers her nearest and dearest together for a cosy catch-up on her local beachfront, where she breaks shocking news to all of them that this will be her last 24 hours alive. She is opting for assisted suicide. French has described Etta in interviews as ‘mentally and physically fit’, but wanting to free her family ‘from the crap to come’. ‘Her choice. Her decision. She isn’t depressed, she isn’t traumatised’, French told the Daily Mirror.

French might be branding the book as a mere ‘conversation opener’, but its message is as subtle as a sledgehammer. Etta’s decision is seen as okay because it is just that: her decision.

Under the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which ran out of parliamentary time in April to become law, Etta would not be eligible for assisted suicide, because she does not have a diagnosis of six months or less to live. However, we know that assisted-dying legislation invariably and rapidly expands in scope when it is introduced. How could it not, given that the argument of campaigners like French, and those sponsoring the UK’s failed assisted-dying bill, centres on ‘choice’ and ‘suffering’ – the definitions of which vary by person, and certainly are not limited to the terminally ill alone.

French’s novel arrives at a delicate political moment. Assisted-dying campaigners are putting pressure on MPs to revive the failed bill. There is even muttering that the Parliament Acts could be used in order to bypass the House of Lords, which effectively stopped the bill from passing through the sheer volume of amendments it proposed.

French seems suspiciously incurious about why many people oppose assisted suicide, framing the proposal as a ‘no-brainer’. Yet it wasn’t a no-brainer to the 350 British disability-rights groups who fiercely opposed the bill, or the many Royal Colleges and MPs who pointedly declined to back the proposed legislation.

Their scepticism was unsurprising, given how assisted-dying laws have already played out across the world. In Canada, where assisted dying was legalised in 2016, the Quebec College of Physicians is now wondering whether euthanasia should be permitted for newborn babies with disabilities. In Oregon, almost half of those who chose assisted suicide between 1998 (the year it became law) and 2022 said they did so because they felt they were a ‘burden’ on family, friends or carers. How can a decision to live or die influenced by social pressure or insecurity be regarded as simply another ‘choice’?

French also seems to sidestep the fact that all of us, regardless of our fluctuating physical and psychological states, can be a ‘burden’ on others. Life is not always pretty or fun, nor should it be. French is correct that ‘the idea of getting older, of being vulnerable, of no longer being independent… are all daunting’. But does this mean suicide ought to be an off-ramp? One of the most difficult, but beautiful, parts of being human is to love and help others – whether this involves caring for an ill relative or just picking up an iced coffee for a friend who has had a tough day at work.

In Mozart’s 18th-century opera, The Magic Flute, lead character Papageno is devastated after believing he has lost his beloved forever. He seeks suicide as an escape from his pain. Before he can act on these urges, three characters show him how to work through these issues and continue living. If only Mozart were still around to educate the likes of French. Both our politics and culture must do a much better job of showing people of all ages and circumstances that they deserve to live.

Georgia L Gilholy is a freelance journalist living in London.