Scotland Parliament votes against legalizing physician-assisted suicide
Caroline MolloyThe majority of the Scottish Parliament voted March 17 to reject a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide, and the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Scotland released a statement assuring the legislators they made the right choice.
Sixty-nine members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) voted against the bill, while 57 voted in favor, and one abstained. The MSPs held the vote after three hours of emotionally charged debate on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill introduced two years ago by Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur, according to The Times. The final draft of the bill states that citizens with terminal illness would be eligible for assisted suicide if he or she had a prognosis of six months to live and has the capacity to request it. Eligibility also requires that the person has been a resident of Scotland for at least 12 months and is a patient with a medical practice in Scotland.
Bishop John Keenan, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Scotland — which has repeatedly expressed opposition to the bill — hailed the news as an affirmation of human dignity.
“MSPs can be confident that they have taken the correct and responsible course of action. Their vote serves to protect some of Scotland’s most vulnerable individuals from the risk of being pressured into a premature death,” he said in a statement.
Concerns over the bill continued to mount last week as MSPs rejected amendments to the bill that would have strengthened conscience rights protections for healthcare institutions. The Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland and the College of Psychiatrists recently changed their positions on the bill from neutral to opposing after protections were removed.
Beyond the concern for the lack of protective amendments, the bill has also been criticized as inherently dangerous. Anthony Horan, director of the Catholic Parliamentary Office of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, emphasized in a statement that opposition to assisted suicide is “is grounded in ethical principles, real-world evidence, and a serious understanding of human vulnerability,” as Zeale News reported.
