Scottish Catholic Observer

Margo MacDonald has launched her latest attempt to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland, but the pro-life campaign group that helped defeated her last time believes she will fail again.

Ms MacDonald, the Independent Lothians MSP, was due to unveil her new Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill on Thursday, less than three years after her last bill on the subject was overwhelmingly rejected by MSPs.

Aidan Michael Cook, the campaign officer for Care not Killing, the cross party campaign group that helped crush Ms MacDonald’s last effort, said he believed she would fail again in having assisted suicide legalised in Scotland.

“We believe that when people have a clear choice on this issue, they reject any change in the law,” he told the SCO. “So we think we will again be successful in preventing assisted suicide being legalised in Scotland.”

Mr Cook added that the scope of this bill was narrower that Ms MacDonald’s previous effort.

“We don’t have the full text of the bill yet,” he said. “But the consultation suggests it will only cover assisted suicide from those with terminal physical illnesses, which is narrower than her last bill, however, this still involves ending people’s lives deliberately and as we have seen elsewhere, it would be just the beginning.”

Under Ms MacDonald’s plan, Scotland would become the first part of Britain to change the law, which currently leaves Scots open to prosecution for culpable homicide if they help someone end their life.

—This story ran in full, with additional photographs, in the November 15 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.