MSPs urged to rebuff assisted suicide’s ‘society of death’

Holyrood has been urged to affirm that “every life is worth living” by rejecting assisted suicide proposals.

The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee heard evidence from a panel of pro-life groups that oppose Liam McArthur’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, including Not Dead Yet UK, CARE for Scotland, Our Duty of Care, and Care Not Killing.

The witnesses put it to the Committee that it should consider whether Scotland wants to eventually become a society which could help kill anyone, noting that across the world, assisted suicide has always expanded to cover more groups of people.

‘Incredibly weak’

Michael Veitch, Scotland Policy Officer for CARE, noted that the evidence from Canada and the Netherlands “clearly demonstrates that once you concede the principle” of assisted suicide, it becomes “very, very difficult to put this back in the bottle”.

Care Not Killing’s CEO Gordon Macdonald agreed, highlighting the “slippery slope” in the Australian state of Victoria where there is now pressure to remove the prohibition against doctors raising assisted suicide as an option to patients.

Dr Miro Griffiths of Not Dead Yet UK added that the eligibility criteria in McArthur’s Bill is “incredibly weak and broad”, making it difficult to make an “objective opinion of what constitutes ‘progressive’, what constitutes ‘advanced’, what constitutes ‘unable to recover’ and so on”.

“One of my strongest messages to all of you really is do you want a society where everybody has access to assisted suicide? Because that’s ultimately where you will go down unless we believe in exceptionalism”.

Pressure

Dr Gillian Wright, Director of Our Duty of Care, said there are also “real concerns” that GPs would never have adequate time to make a “proper capacity assessment” of a patient seeking assisted suicide.

Veitch emphasised that even if external coercion doesn’t occur, vulnerable people may “start to feel worried about the financial pressure on their family to provide care for them or worried about the impact they’re having upon the NHS at such a time like this”.

Dr Griffiths, a wheelchair user who has “progressive” and “life-limiting” conditions, explained that such people often “do not have choice to access sufficient support, access accessible housing”, adding that “all of these issues will play into the consciousness of the decision that one takes whether their life is valuable or whether their live is tolerable”.

“Therefore, I think the focus should be on how to address those issues before debating whether there is such a thing as a choice for death.”

Doubts

Last week, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives revealed that he is re-examining his own support for assisted suicide following the Westminster debate.

Russell Findlay MSP said that members of his party would be allowed a free vote on proposals before the Scottish Parliament, admitting that he now has doubts about removing end-of-life protections north of the border.

Findlay told The Scotsman: “I think the debate that took place in the House of Commons was very enlightening, perhaps for all the wrong reasons, not least due to the shorter timescale in which it took place.”

“Unlike what the Scottish Parliament has done before with legislation, this will need proper, robust scrutiny, and as and when that process takes place I’ll come to a view.”