The Catholic Parliamentary Office has reacted with concern to the rejection of plenty of proposed safeguards to Scotland’s assisted suicide bill.
The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill is currently at Stage 2 of the legislative process, meaning that the Scottish Parliament’s Health and Sport Committee are examining amendments to the proposal. The Scottish laws is separate to that currently being debated within the House of Lords in Westminster.
Concerns have been raised on the speed of the method, which is currently set to look at all 287 proposed amendments in only three weeks, with only one session per week.
One amendment that has already been rejected is a proposal that might restrict assisted suicide to those with six months or less to live.
Independent MSP, Jeremy Balfour, said that rejecting the amendment left the definition of terminal illness “extraordinarily broad”.
He said, “As it stands it could include individuals who would live not for weeks or months, but for years. People managing long-term conditions, people receiving treatment that stabilises their illness, individuals who still have meaningful time ahead of them, would all fall throughout the scope of the Bill as drafted in the meanwhile.”
Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy also took issue with the definition. Diagnosed with juvenile idiopathic arthritis as a baby, and a wheelchair user, Duncan-Glancy said her condition “shouldn’t be something I’m going to recuperate from” and that she might be thought to be “terminally unwell” under the proposed bill.
The committee also rejected a proposal by Balfour that might exclude individuals with non-terminal conditions from receiving assisted suicide. As such, under the bill because it stands, eating disorders, loneliness, financial hardship and Down’s Syndrome could all grow to be reasons an individual could go for suicide.
Anthony Horan, Director of the Catholic Parliamentary Office, said that the committee’s decision to reject such safeguards was deeply concerning.
“These amendments were clearly designed to guard a few of the most vulnerable people in our communities from being coerced right into a premature death; disabled people, those with poor mental health, and other people combating financial hardship.
“Their rejection is deeply troubling and suggests a direction of travel that ought to alarm MSPs right across the Parliament,” he said.
 The Catholic Parliamentary Office has reacted with concern to the rejection of plenty of proposed safeguards to Scotland’s assisted suicide bill. The Assisted...){kind=link}