Better end of life care is more needed than assisted dying law - Susan Dalgety
I have changed my mind about assisted dying in recent years. After watching two close relatives struggle to breathe in their final days, one refusing to eat or drink, I long held the view that we should be allowed to choose the time of our own death, if at all possible.
I supported the principle of assisted dying and welcomed Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur’s plans to introduce a member’s bill at Holyrood to make it a reality.
Then I changed my mind. Not because I stopped believing in the principle, but because I couldn’t trust the Scottish Parliament to draft legislation robust enough to protect those who wanted to end their life by assisted suicide, as well as those folk who steadfastly reject the notion.
My doubts about our MSPs’ ability to legislate on matters of life and death began during the gender recognition debate.
Any group of politicians who believed that human beings could change their sex simply by completing an official form were clearly not fit to make a law about the most fundamental aspect of any life – death.
And listening to the debate last week, when MSPs shared emotional stories about their loved one’s deaths, only confirmed my view that the bill must fail. And it did, by a bigger margin than predicted.
The time for MSPs to share their ‘lived experience’ had long passed. I wanted to hear how the Assisted Dying bill would protect women from being coerced into suicide by abusive partners.
I wanted to understand properly how profoundly disabled people, who required 24-hour care yet still loved life, would be protected. I wanted to be reassured that the Scottish Parliament could draft legislation that was fire-proof.
And all I witnessed was a display of emotional blackmail. It wasn’t Holyrood at its finest, as some commentators have suggested, but our parliament as daytime TV, trading stories of heartache and pain.
Liam McArthur has said the issue will come back to the parliament – though he stressed he will not be the one to bring it back. And he is confident that next time it will pass.
There is public support for change. A poll carried out in 2024 on behalf of the campaign group Dignity in Dying Scotland found that 78 per cent of respondents said that they would support making it lawful for someone to seek assisted dying.
But perhaps the bill that should come forward next is one that guarantees everyone who needs it the best possible palliative care as their life draws to an end.
That is what most people want, not for doctors to have the right to hasten their grandmother’s death by giving her a lethal drug, but for her to die in dignity, free from pain and if possible, fear.
It is impossible to predict the make-up of the next parliament following the elections on 7 May, but there will be a lot of fresh faces at Holyrood.
Only time will tell if they have the ability to design and deliver a palliative care system that properly meets the needs of people at the end of their life.
But that must be their priority, not another Assisted Dying Bill.