Huge response to Scottish assisted suicide consultation

Liam McArthur MSP

A consultation on assisted suicide plans before the Scottish Parliament has received an unprecedented number of responses.

The call for views, which closed at the end of last year, received more than 10,000 submissions, according to the Daily Record - the most responses to a member's consultation ever recorded at Holyrood.

Liam McArthur MSP's 'Assisted Dying' Bill would allow terminally ill people in Scotland to access lethal drugs. It has been strongly criticised by medics, academics, disability campaigners and faith groups.

These groups believe it will lead to serious harms against the most vulnerable, undermine palliative care, and create an ever-widening law. They also stress that the process of assisted suicide itself is painful and undignified.

A spokesman for CARE commented:

"The huge response to this consultation underlines just how alarming and controversial Liam McArthur's proposals are in Scotland and more widely. Many people are deeply upset at the prospect of legislation that would see suicide normalised in healthcare, with all the resultant harms for patients, medics and wider society.

"Good societies treat suicide as a terrible act, to be mourned and prevented. We want to see a Scotland where hope and help are at the centre of our response to human suffering, not lethal drugs. And we want to see excellent end-of-life care for every person. When assisted suicide is legalised, this goal is undermined.

"We call on MSPs in every party to carefully review the evidence of assisted suicide's harms and reject this latest attempt to change the law, as parliament has done on more than one occasion in the past."