Margo McDonald, the independent MSP, has re-launched her effort to secure legislation which would make assisted dying legal in Scotland, unveiling a new consultation on the issue.
Ms McDonald, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, wants to make it possible for “licensed facilitators” and medical professionals to help suffering patients take their own lives without any fear of prosecution.
Under her plans, the government could license a friend of the patient, who would then collect prescription drugs for the patient and stay with them until they had used the drugs to end their life.
This latest effort from Ms McDonald has been met with frustration and opposition by other MSPs and those opposed to legalising assisted suicide, as a bill from the same MSP was convincingly rejected by 85 to 16 in a parliamentary vote just over a year ago.
A senior Conservative MSP, Alex Johnstone, said that he was “disappointed” that an assisted dying bill was due to return to the Scottish parliament so soon after it was rejected.
Andrea Williams, CEO of Christian Concern, commented:
“The last bill was rejected because the ‘right to die’ is likely to quickly become the duty to die. We must protect the most vulnerable in our society and oppose any change in the law which would allow for assisted dying.”
“The majority of those who are suffering are elderly and sick and often feel pressure not to be a burden. They must be protected at all costs and given the best palliative care available.David Cameron has told us that he wants our society to be informed by Christian values, and this is an area where those values are acutely needed.”
Uncertainty
It is also unclear at this stage which group of people the MSP wants to allow to be assisted in their suicides. She has variously described the target group for her bill as those “suffering a terminal illness or condition, for whom life becomes intolerable”; those who’s “life has been made intolerable by an irrecoverable illness”, and when a patient’s life has “become intolerable to him or her as a result of their irreversible condition”.
Dr Peter Saunders, CEO of the Christian Medical Fellowship, highlighted the stark differences which exist between these descriptions:
“Tetraplegia is usually irreversible but not terminal. Diabetes is ‘irrecoverable’ without treatment but not ‘irreversible’ with it. Leukemic is ‘terminal’ but not irrecoverable if managed properly. And literally hundreds of thousands of British people suffer from conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis and chronic bronchitis which are ‘irrecoverable’ but partly reversible and not terminal”.
Sources
Resources
Christian Concern: End of Life