Liam McArthur MSP should expect a lengthy legal battle over his assisted suicide proposals, academics have warned.
In an opinion piece for Scottish Legal News, constitutional law specialist Dr Michael Foran and medical law experts Dr Mary Neale and Dr Murray Earle said the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill presents a “considerable potential for conflict”.
Last week, thousands of Christians across the UK united in prayer against attempts to introduce assisted suicide in Great Britain, spearheaded by McArthur in Scotland and Kim Leadbeater MP in England and Wales.
‘Hugely controversial’
The academics argued that “particular provisions” of the Bill – to authorise the use of lethal drugs and to determine whether to allow medics to conscientiously object to assisted suicide – exceed the powers of Holyrood to legislate.
In fact, as the “primary purpose” of McArthur’s plan relates “to the reserved matter of regulating the health professions”, they reasoned that the entirety of the Bill falls outside Holyrood’s powers.
Consequently, they predicted it faces “a long and contentious road ahead”, not only because of the “hugely controversial issue of assisted dying itself”, but also due to the “divisive constitutional questions of devolved versus reserved powers”.
McArthur admitted: “I have always been clear that in order for the new law I’m proposing to work in the way I envisage, both UK and Scottish governments would need to agree on the transfer of certain powers.”
‘Flawed’
In October, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care Neil Gray informed Holyrood’s Health Committee that McArthur’s Bill is currently “outside the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament”.
Gray noted that a Section 30 order, which could be used to amend Holyrood’s authority, takes up to 18 months to obtain and requires the joint approval of the UK Government, Westminster, and Holyrood.
But at the time, Dr Gordon Macdonald, Chief Executive of the UK’s leading anti-assisted suicide group Care Not Killing, said that a Section 30 order had only ever been granted for “the independence referendum and to take such action on such a matter would open up a can of worms for Westminster”.
He argued that the proposals “pulled the wool over people’s eyes to try and secure support”, and the “SNP Government has made its views most clear that the Bill is potentially fatally flawed and not fit for purpose”.
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