Medical professionals warn Scotland against voting for assisted suicide

As the Scottish Parliament enters the ultimate stages of its deliberations on the problem of assisted suicide, 188 medics have written to MSPs saying that legalising the controversial practice comes with “serious risks”.

Holyrood is predicted to carry its final vote on assisted suicide on 17 March. While similar laws in Westminster is believed to be dead within the water, in Scotland the ultimate vote is predicted to be very close.

In their open letter, the doctors and nurses note six broad concerns in regards to the bill: the specter of coercion, the shortcoming to vary one’s mind, safeguards for the mentally unwell, provision for doctors with conscientious objections, and the failure to fulfill the social needs of patients and to supply good palliative care.

Dr Jonathan Blackwell, one among the signatories of the letter, said, “We look after people at their most vulnerable. In our skilled judgement, the Bill because it stands doesn’t contain sufficiently robust safeguards to guard patients from coercion, untreated mental illness, or unmet social and palliative care needs.

“This shouldn’t be a theoretical debate for us – it concerns the protection of real patients. Before Parliament proceeds further, we imagine these issues should be addressed.”

Last week seven medical bodies also expressed their “significant collective concern” in regards to the proposed law, amongst them the Association for Palliative Medicine (Scotland), Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

In addition to medical concerns, a variety of Scottish church leaders have also expressed their objections to the bill.

The churches, who share most of the same concerns because the medical professionals, said in their very own open letter, “True compassion doesn’t mean helping someone to die, but committing ourselves to look after them in life.”