Euthanasia bill defeated in Scotland

Mary Zwicker, European Correspondent:

Pro-lifers are celebrating a massive win for life following Scotland’s rejection of proposed assisted suicide legislation.

On March 17, the feast of St. Patrick, the Scottish Parliament defeated the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill in a 69-57 vote with one abstention. If passed, Scotland would have become the first country in the United Kingdom to legalize assisted suicide.

“This is a great victory for the most vulnerable in our society,” said Right to Life U.K. chief executive Alisdair Hungerford-Morgan in a press release. “They deserve protection and care, not a pathway to suicide. If this legislation had passed, countless vulnerable people would have been pressured or coerced into ending their lives.

“A large number of MSPs (Members of Scottish Parliament) from across the political spectrum came together today to recognize the dangers this Bill posed and have rightly rejected it,” he said.

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill was first introduced to the Scottish Parliament in March of 2024 by Liberal MSP Liam McArthur. Under this bill, assisted suicide would have been legalized for terminally ill individuals above the age of 16. The applicant would have had to be mentally competent, a resident of Scotland for at least 12 months, and be expected to die within a six-month period. Two doctors would need to sign off on the decision, and the individual would need to be able to administer the lethal dose themself.

While suicide itself is not a criminal act in Scotland, this proposed bill directly contradicts the United Kingdom’s 1961 Suicide Act. This law, while decriminalizing suicide itself, criminalized all forms of assisted suicide across the U.K., including in Scotland; all forms of aiding and abetting suicide are currently punishable with 14 years of prison. All of this would have completely changed under the new bill.

The Scottish Parliament’s rejection of the bill came as a surprise considering that during a second reading of the bill, parliamentarians voted 70-56 in favour of it. Now, following the bill’s defeat, any attempt to re-introduce assisted suicide in Scotland will need to start from scratch, as a defeated bill is not permitted to be re-presented in its same form.

“The question of assisted suicide has dominated the five-year term of the current Scottish Parliament. The issue is now settled for a generation,” said Hungerford-Morgan.

Alex Schadenburg, executive director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, pointed out that Scotland’s decision was definitely influenced by the example of Canada’s assisted-suicide and euthanasia policies. “Scottish legislators also faced significant pressure in dealing with the reality of Canada’s expansive euthanasia law,” he said, quoting Scottish Conservative party leader, Russell Findlay, whose allusion to certain countries’ assisted suicide laws as a “slippery slope” was definitely referencing Canada.

“The defeat of the McArthur assisted suicide bill is a great victory,” Schadenberg wrote on his blog. “The experience in all jurisdictions is that legalizing assisted suicide always results in an expansion of the law. Legalizing assisted killing for some situations will always expand to include more reasons to kill. We are thankful that the Scottish parliament voted no to assisted suicide.”

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