SNP conference goers hear emotional speech in favour of assisted dying

A woman has said her dad would have been saved from “sedation and starvation” if assisted dying was legal when he died.

Annemarie Williams spoke in favour of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill during a fringe event at the SNP conference in Aberdeen hosted by the Dignity in Dying campaign group.

The Scot said she has never been a “political person” but was moved to campaign for assisted dying after seeing her father die after multiple brain tumours.

She described her dad, a former head teacher at a secondary school in Glasgow, as an “intelligent man” who had taken early retirement before “being plagued” by health issues in his early 60s, including cancer and two hip replacements.

She said after a “massive surgery” and two courses of chemo he recovered and got back to a “fairly normal quality of life”.

But he was later diagnosed with multiple brain tumours.

She said during an emotional speech: “To see this person who had always loved a debate, who had valued intelligence and analytical thinking above all else, to see him losing his words and struggling to communicate was really excruciating for us all.

“And then to see him losing the power of speech altogether was heartbreaking.

“During the early stages of the process, I don’t believe there was physical pain, but that doesn’t change the fact there are many other other elements of suffering for which there’s no treatment, in particular, the loss of his dignity and autonomy that he valued so highly.”

Ms Williams said in the later stages of his illness before his final sedation “he was just existing”.

She added: “It had been his wish to stay at home until it was time to go into hospice.

“So my two sisters and I cared for him at home until he died because when the time came, there was no hospice available.”

Ms Williams said that when her father was sedated, which lasted for 11 days before his death, she did not know how aware he was or if he was in pain.

She said: “After diagnosis, he was sedated and left to die from (lack of) food and water and he just became unrecognisable to us, and that, sadly, is our lasting memory of him.

“I’m quite sure it’s not how he would want to be remembered.

“If assisted dying was an option, dad would have been able to choose what was right for him.”

Ms Williams said better palliative care would not have improved matters “because there are elements of this there are no palliation for”.

SNP George Adam, who voted in favour of the Assisted Dying Bill at Holyrood earlier this year, said the legislation was about “empowering families”, having spoken about the chronic conditions facing his partner.

But he warned of hurdles facing the Bill as it enters stage two. He said there could be hundreds amendments to the Bill, as seen in recent legislation. While “many will be genuine”, he suggested others were not.

“There will be difficulty at stage two,” the former parliamentary business minister said, “because there will be all kinds of crazy amendments that, to many of us, will all seem like absolute madness.”

He urged his colleagues at Holyrood to “keep the respect” seen in the debate seen at stage one.

He told the crowd in Aberdeen that an argument from some critics that the Bill could lead to people forcing elderly relatives into death for money was a disgusting “scare story”.

He said he respected the opinions of opponents but urged them “not to go down that rabbit hole of complete and utter nonsense”.

The Bill, brought forward by Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur, would, if passed, allow those at an advanced stage of a terminal illness the right to seek medical help to die.

Opponents of the Bill fear the proposals could leave disabled people and vulnerable Scots feeling under pressure to prematurely end their lives.

MSPs in all parties had a free vote on the issue but First Minister John Swinney and Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes have opposed the Bill, as has Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar, and former first ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf.