Campaigner describes how ‘hero’ father chose assisted death in Canada
Fiona Anderson’s father, John Bird, who had stage four cancer. went to Ontario on 2022.
A woman whose terminally ill father chose an assisted death in Canada says he was a “hero”, as she campaigns for a change in the law in Scotland.
Fiona Anderson’s father John Bird had stage four cancer when he died in Ontario in June 2022.
Medically assisted deaths were legalised in Canada in 2016.
Ms Anderson, who lives in Dunblane, is supporting the Bill to allow assisted dying in Scotland where a crucial stage one parliamentary vote will be held on Tuesday.
She joined Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur, who proposed the Bill, and other supporters outside the Scottish Parliament on Tuesday morning.
Holding a placard with an image of her father, she told the PA news agency: “I believe it’s a right we have as Scots citizens to be able to choose agency and bravery for ourselves and have a graceful and peaceful death.”
Ms Anderson said she would be “disappointed” if the Bill falls, saying her family history led to her seeing the benefits of assisted dying.
Discussing her father’s death, she said: “We saw a man who had lived his life to the fullest and he said ‘I’m ready to die’.
“He had stage four terminal cancer and the prognosis was two or three years.”
Two doctors assessed Mr Bird, 83, before he was granted a medically assisted death.
Ms Anderson and her brother sat beside his bed as he died, saying “we love you Dad”.
She added: “My brother and I didn’t even know what (assisted dying) was at the time, so it was definitely his choice and we stand by it.
“A hero in our eyes.”
Ms Anderson’s mother died from cancer two decades before her father, an experience she described as “painful and heartbreaking”.
She said: “This was still heartbreaking with my dad, absolutely. We did it with grace and dignity.”
