Scottish Catholic Observer

Proposals to allow assisted suicide in Scotland contain ‘significant flaws,’ a Scottish Parliament report reveals today, and the majority the MSPs behind the report now opposes legalising euthanasia.

Holyrood’s health and sport committee report into the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill said that, as it is an matter of conscience, they had chosen to make no formal recommendation to parliament on the bill and will allow the Parliament to vote on it.

Pro-life campaigners welcomed the report and said MSPs should now vote it down.

Gordon Macdonald (above) of Care Not Killing said the report ‘confirms what we have said along.’

“The bill is poorly thought out, ill-conceived, badly-drafted and effectively not fit for purpose,” Mr Macdonald said. “We are delighted that the committee agrees with us that the Bill contains significant flaws which are likely to prevent it from being enacted. It is gratifying to note a majority of the committee is against the Bill although they have not made a formal recommendation to the Parliament to reject the Bill.”

Catherine Garrod, an Edinburgh disability rights campaigner speaking on behalf of Not Dead Yet (another campaign group opposing the bill) also welcomed the report.

“Disabled people oppose assisted suicide because it gives the message that our lives are not worth living,” she said. “Disabled people want assistance to live, investment in health and social care, good palliative care, support for independent living and the right to equality not assisted suicide.”

Green MSP Patrick Harvie agreed to take the bill forward following the death of independent MSP Margo Macdonald, who had campaigned for assisted suicide to be legalised in Scotland.

Responding to the committee’s concerns, Mr Harvie said he was open to suggestions as to how the legislation could be strengthened.

“This committee report makes no formal recommendation to MSPs, and it’s right that members decide on this issue each having considered it carefully,” he said. “It is however disappointing that the committee has placed so little emphasis on the responses I and others have given to the criticisms of the bill, many of which are grounded in an ideological opposition to personal choice.

Now that the health and sport committee has reported on the bill, the full Scottish Parliament will debate the general principles of the bill in light of the Committee’s report. The Parliament will decide whether to agree to the general principles of the bill. The debate on the bill should take place before the stage 1 deadline of May 29.

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