Joanne and her dad smiling while hugging on a sofa at a party. She wears a black dress with dark red hair and he wears a blue shirt and has short dark hair.

My dad didn’t want to die like this: we need assisted dying laws now

Joanne Easton, assisted dying campaigner

November 11, 2024

Joanne Easton is a campaigner for assisted dying based in Wishaw. She became involved in the fight for legal assisted dying after losing her dad to pancreatic cancer. Since then, she has channelled her grief and anger into doing all she can to support Liam McArthur’s assisted dying bill, as she explains in a guest article.

Why do I need the Assisted Dying Bill for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) to become law? I can give you three buzzwords. Choice. Control. Dignity. I watched my beloved father Robert Easton waste away from pancreatic cancer. It was a 15-month journey from diagnosis to death. My dad had been the strongest man throughout his life. He was a fireman until he retired. He and my mum spent a lot of years having wonderful holidays and travelling the world. He loved his motorbikes and could turn his hand to all sorts of DIY.

My dad’s diagnosis and the progression of his cancer was horrendous. He wanted choice over how he died. He didn’t want to suffer. He didn’t want to be in pain. My dad didn’t want to be a burden (as if he ever could have been!) on his family. He wanted to choose when he died. He wanted control over how he left this earth. He wanted to die with dignity.

Joanne sits on a chair speaking into a microphone making a point with her hands. She wears a black top and has died red hair. — JOANNE SPEAKS AT OUR FESTIVAL OF HUMANISM 2024

My dad didn’t get any of his last wishes. I am left with the most traumatic memories imaginable, memories of my lovely dad that I categorically do not want

My dad didn’t get any of his last wishes because an assisted dying bill for Scotland failed to pass in 2015. I am left with the most traumatic memories imaginable, memories of my lovely dad that I categorically do not want. I try to replace them with happy memories but it’s impossible. I can’t get the memories of his deterioration and death out of my head. I fear they will never leave. My dad would not have wanted this. My dad didn’t want this.

To wrest a semblance of control back, my dad asked me to research how he could kill himself. And I did the research because I loved my dad so much (and I still love him, love doesn’t end with death). Imagine. Imagine how my dad felt. Imagine how I felt. Can you? The anguish cannot be adequately described using words. My heart was broken.

In the end, my dad told me to leave the matter be. He wasn’t willing to risk any more damage to me, his daughter, whom he had always wanted to protect. He was always conscious of my mental health battles and he just wanted me to be healthy. My dad passed in a hospice on the sunrise of the solstice, 21 June 2021, a day before his 70th birthday. He was also born on the solstice, so that does give me some solace.

Joanne Easton portrait pic. She smiles at the camera and has died bright orangey red hair. — JOANNE EASTON

Opponents will speak about the lack of safeguards in the bill as it currently stands. To that I would retort: where are the safeguards for our dying people now?

Opponents will speak about the lack of safeguards in the bill as it currently stands. To that I would retort: where are the safeguards for dying people now? Where are the safeguards to protect their loved ones from viewing harmful material? Where are the safeguards to ensure that dying people aren’t forced to measure lengths of rope, research the best drugs to buy (illegally, of course) to allow them a peaceful, pain-free passing? Opponents also talk about erosion of rights. Well, where are the rights of terminally ill people who are suffering in the last days of their lives?

Most of us have the luxury of pushing thoughts of death away. No, not today Grim Reaper, off you pop. People with less than six months to live do not have such a luxury. This bill must become law. We cannot continue to allow our terminally ill loved ones to suffer in this way. We must show compassion and give terminally ill people the choice, control and dignity over their passing.

Tell your MSP the Time is Now for an Assisted Dying law

Please help us reach every MSP in Scotland to ask them to support Liam McArthur’s Assisted Dying bill in Scotland.

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