Scottish Catholic Observer

The Independent MSP’s Margo MacDonald’s (above) End of Life Assistance Bill is intended to give seriously ill people over the age of 16 the right to take their own life but the committee examining it has now said it should not become law.

John Deighan, the Catholic Church’s parliamentary officer, said he was very pleased with the announcement.

“All in all this a comprehensive rejection of a bill which would have posed an enormous danger to many people and would have seriously undermined the dignity of sick and dying people in society,” he said. “The committee has examined dozens of weaknesses in the bill and crucially said that society needed to be protected from euthanasia and assisted suicide thus excepting the point that these are dangerous things.”

The bill will now be debated by MSPs next week, but the committee’s rejection of the legislation makes it highly unlikely it will secure majority support.

Committee convener Ross Finnie said the committee could not recommend the bill.

“In the last few months, we have taken evidence on the bill’s proposals from a wide range of organisations including medical practitioners, palliative care charities, religious groups and legal experts based in the UK and overseas,” he said. “Following detailed discussions on the evidence, we’ve concluded that there are several flaws in the bill. Fundamentally, the committee wrestled with the bill’s premise that it would help maintain an individual’s dignity and autonomy as they move towards the end of their life.”

The report concluded that making a case on the grounds of ‘dignity’ was problematic in defining ‘with dignity’ and that grounds of individual ‘autonomy’ were not accepted by all members of the committee.

It said there was a strong view that individual choice had to be considered within the context of society as a whole.

The report also found it would have been clearer for ‘assisted suicide’ and ‘voluntary euthanasia’ to have been dealt with as separate provisions, rather than combining them under one definition.

The full report is available at: www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/committees/endLifeAsstBill/reports.htm