On Tuesday 13 May, MSPs will debate and vote on a bill to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland.
Liam McArthur’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill would allow doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to a broad range of Scottish citizens. It defines terminal illness as:
“…an advanced and progressive disease, illness, or condition from which [a person is] unable to recover and that can reasonably be expected to cause their premature death”
Holyrood’s Health Committee, which has been examining the bill, recently said this definition would catch people who “may not be approaching death for a considerable period of time”.
We are concerned that the bill as drafted would lead to injustices against disabled people, people with dementia, people with dementia and others. We would also highlight a number of unsolvable problems with ‘assisted dying’ laws:
Social and internal pressure: No legal drafting could prevent people feeling pressure to die due to a lack of support; because they feel like a burden; or because of feelings of hopelessness or despair arising from circumstances in their lives.
Coercion of vulnerable citizens: Controlling or coercive behaviour is crime that can happen gradually and subtly, making it difficult for professionals to identify and evidence. In addition, victims themselves may not know they are experiencing it.
Mission creep in legislation: Countries with long-standing assisted suicide or euthanasia laws and countries that have introduced laws in the last decade have witnessed expansion. Holyrood’s Health Committee recognises the risk of this in Scotland.
If you live in Scotland, please consider writing to your MSPs to raise concerns about the Assisted Dying Bill and ask them to vote against it on Tuesday 13 May. We have provided a draft email bellow, should you wish to make use of it.
Please make this draft your own by adding in your own reflections, and personal experiences that lead you to oppose a law change. Perhaps you know of vulnerable people that could be disproportionately impacted by an assisted suicide law.
To find out who your MSPs are visit the Write To Them website. After you have entered your postcode, you will see your constituency MSP at the top of the middle column under ‘Your MSPs’. You will also see a button to the write giving you the option to ‘Write to all your [seven] regional MSPs’. We recommend that you send emails to all of the above ahead of the debate and vote next week.
Thank you for taking action with us!
Draft email template
You may wish to send something like this – do personalise it before sending.
Email header text: Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill
Dear [insert name(s)],
As a constituent, I am writing to ask you to vote against the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill next Tuesday. I understand there are strong arguments on both sides of the debate, but I fear that we cannot legislate for this safely.
The bill has dangers that cannot be mitigated. There is no way to guarantee against coercion of vulnerable people, including lonely older Scots and women victims of domestic abuse. Coercive and controlling behaviour is a pernicious crime. It’s hard for experts to identify, never mind busy doctors. Cases of coercion would inevitably be missed, and there is no way to undo an assisted death.
There is also no way to prevent people choosing to end their lives because of pressure arising from inequality. Not everyone in Scotland has access to good healthcare, and other support they need. This fact would inevitably affect decision making. Assisted death would see people choosing to remove themselves from society because society hasn’t removed the inequalities they face
I am also concerned by evidence from Oregon that more than half of people cite ‘being a burden’ as one motivating factor before ending their lives. This feeling is a common one in caring situations, and I fear that it will motivate many people to end their lives.
I’d also urge you to think about the prospect of mission creep in legislation. The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee has conceded that Liam McArthur’s bill could be “subject to human rights or other court challenges” that “result in eligibility for assisted dying being extended over time”.
If you are not comfortable with a permissive ‘assisted dying’ law – one that allows people to die due to non-terminal conditions, or mental health conditions for example – the only way to rule this out is to keep the door to assisted death closed.
This debate is sometimes presented as a binary choice between existing care and actively enabling deaths. This is not the view of palliative care doctors who work with dying people every single day. They overwhelmingly oppose assisted suicide and stress the need for investment in palliative care, which meets patients’ needs on a holistic basis without harming the patient. We need to invest more in this.
Please think carefully about what I’ve said and vote against the bill next week. I would urge you to support truly progressive policies instead: suicide prevention, palliative care, and better support for disabled people.
Yours sincerely,
[Your name here]