Euthanasia, mercy killing, assisted suicide or whatever you care to call it’s a profoundly difficult, emotional and sophisticated subject which many Christians, including yours truly, struggle with.
On the one hand the case for stopping pointless suffering at the tip of life seems strong. That is until you examine the implications of a society allowing the State to kill its own residents – even at their request. I even have wrestled with, and proceed to wrestle with, all of the complexities of this. For example I wrote this open letter on the topic to my MP. And I took a complete episode of my podcast to reflect on the emotions, realities and theological implications of all of it.
As someone who personally got here very near death and who frequently ministers to those that are dying or wish to die, I even have a deep and private interest on this. So it was with a heavy heart that I woke up one morning this week in Australia only to find that the politicians in my place of birth had decided to go the regressive route of assisted suicide.
The Scottish Parliament has already turned down physician assisted suicide two times, but that has not stopped those for whom that is the equivalent of a spiritual doctrine which should be enforced. This week, after one more attempt, the Scottish Parliament voted 70 to 56 in favour of allowing assisted suicide.
You will note that I’m refusing to call it assisted dying. That is since it will not be assisted dying. When you grant someone palliative care, you might be assisting them of their death. When you assist someone to take their very own life, you might be assisting their suicide. Words, names and language matter.
The bill allows terminally sick, mentally competent adults to hunt medical help to finish their lives. It will not be yet law and can still must go through two more stages of parliamentary procedure before it becomes law, nevertheless it is unlikely that eight MSPs will change their minds.
The debate, and the reporting on it, followed the same old patterns in these debates. People told understandably emotive stories of suffering relatives, although stories of those that felt pressured to take their very own lives were absent from the reporting.
The politicians congratulated themselves on what a respectful debate they’d had. The victors announced that this was a “victory for compassion”. The Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Clancy, the primary wheelchair user to be elected to Holyrood, gave an outstanding speech mentioning the threats to disabled people for this reason laws. The Glasgow MSP said she feared it could turn out to be “easier to access help to die than help to live”. And she warned the bill could “legitimise a view that a life like ours, one among dependence and infrequently pain, will not be value living”. I loved the undeniable fact that she was supported by the wonderful disabled actor, Liz Carr, the star of Silent Witness.
It is notable that the Scottish First Minister John Swinney, and his deputy, Kate Forbes, voted against. As did the Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, and former First Ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf. It is equally fascinating that 11 Tory MSPs voted in favour (19 against); 41 SNP in favour (19 against); all of the Greens after all voted in favour; and the Lib Dems voted 4 in favour, 1 against. What surprised and encouraged me was that while 7 Labour MSPs voted in favour, 15 voted against.
It can also be interesting that the UK government slipped out a report last Friday which callously suggested that assisted suicide could save the NHS $10 million per 12 months, and something called the Equality Impact Assessment which was concerned with barriers that might prevent disabled and mentally sick people from making the most of this ‘service’. The report even talks in regards to the disadvantages that ‘pregnant individuals’, the poor, and transgender people might face in requesting assisted suicide.
Which brings me back to the non-public. This week was also my mother’s ninetieth birthday. She is a frail woman who lives on her own within the Scottish Highlands. I marvel at her strength and life. God forbid that she would ever feel under any pressure to take her own life – for the sake of her children. Do not doubt that that happens. A girl is told that she will be able to either sell her home and pay for her end-of-life care or take her life and have her children keep their inheritance. Who wouldn’t feel that pressure?
I now live in a rustic – Australia – where assisted suicide is legal and encouraged. I cannot begin to explain what a darkness that brings on those whose job is to heal and look after the dying and yet are compelled to supply and facilitate their death. And the pressure on those that feel elderly, disabled and useless is real and sustained.
One quote on X summarised the entire situation for me: “A tragic day for Scotland. I simply cannot trust a Parliament that didn’t know the difference between a person and a girl to provide a bit of laws that won’t end in probably the most vulnerable in society being killed by the State.”
In Proverbs 8:36 we’re told that it’s those that hate the personification of Wisdom (ultimately seen in Christ) who love death. Increasingly Western societies, as they turn away from their Christian roots, turn out to be cultures of death. We hope and pray that we’ll turn back, and once more turn out to be cultures of life.
David Robertson, a Scot in exile, Newcastle, New South Wales. Find him at The Wee Flea.
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