Scotland’s assisted suicide vote: a short lived victory?

In a surprising move, the Scottish Parliament this week voted to reject assisted suicide. And it wasn’t even close – 57 for and 69 against, with every party except the Lib Dems and the Greens having a majority voting against. Why did this occur? Especially when at the primary two stages of the bill it comfortably passed. 

And therein lies the reply. As MSPs got to look more closely at what was involved, they realised that the bill itself was badly worded and had insurmountable difficulties – like compelling staff and organisations who didn’t need to take part in ‘mercy killing’ to accomplish that.  

Like the specter of people feeling coerced. The bill would have made the treatment available to terminally ailing, mentally competent adults who’ve been given lower than six months to live – but opponents said there have been not enough protections against coercion.  

Like the federal government admitting that cash would should be taken from other frontline NHS services to supply for assisted suicide.  The irony of taking money from the sick as a way to kill people was not lost on some MSPs. 

The level of propaganda and money behind the pro-assisted suicide people (someone should ask where all this money comes from – enabling massive ads in newspapers through the campaign?) signifies that it isn’t surprising that opinion polls show that the vast majority of the general public appear to support assisted suicide – even though it all depends upon the query asked. 

If you ask ‘would you like your granny to have a pleasant peaceful, pain-free death on the time and place of her own selecting, or to die in agony?’, then it’s little wonder that almost all say yes. But when you ask ‘do you’re thinking that extra money needs to be spent on palliative care and doctors avoid being involved in killing people?’, you’ll get a distinct answer. 

The trouble with the vox pop style of opinion polls is that they don’t go into the complexities of the problems involved. When MSPs had the chance, they saw the difficulties and turned away from them.  

You would hope as Dr Gordon Macdonald, CEO of Care Not Killing, stated “that we must improve palliative care in Scotland in the long run … No one should should suffer a painful death, and we now have to speculate in palliative care services to make sure that everyone has dignity at the tip of life.” 

It will probably be interesting to see if the Scottish government goes down this route or whether we just wait until the bill is resurrected in one other form. The journalist Kevin McKenna writing within the Herald was scathing: “Do you actually think that the Scottish Greens and the SNP will spend money on helping those at the tip of their lives? Behave yourselves. Assisted Dying was all the time a lovely, cost-effective alternative than having to spend money on people they loathed after they were in good health.”

The BBC, with its usual partiality, reported it as a missed opportunity and treated the bill’s proposer Liam McArthur as if he was some sort of victim. They did not mention that McArthur’s bill was prepared to shut down Catholic hospices somewhat than allow them to opt out. 

Another commentator, Iain Macwhirter, noted the contribution of two disabled MSPs: “The Independent MSP Jeremy Balfour warned that disabled people were ‘terrified’ that they could be subtly induced to hunt assisted dying as a way to relieve the ‘burden’ on family and health services. The ex-Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy MBE, speaking from her wheelchair, made a passionate case against ‘selecting to make it easier to live than to die’. Most of the supporters of the bill argued for private alternative. But what alternative did the elderly and disabled really have when social care, palliative care and disabled facilities are so inadequate?” 

From a Christian perspective this is nice news – the Roman Catholic church, Free Church of Scotland, Baptist Union and Evangelical alliance were all strongly opposed. The Church of Scotland was officially opposed but allowed ‘diversity’. Only the Scottish Episcopalian Church was in favour.  

But although this was excellent news for the elderly, poor, sick and disabled in Scotland, it could only be a stay of execution. Like the Terminator, the bill will probably be back! Despite Alex Cole-Hamilton, the Lib Dem leader, saying that “that is the moment of ultimate decision’, because the choice didn’t go their way. As one supporter put it: “We only should win the argument once.” Why? Do they not think it is feasible to reverse a nasty law? 

This indicates how ‘progressivism’ works. They keep pushing and pushing until a permissive law is passed. Then that law becomes an irreversible basic ‘human right’ which might never be modified. What gets me is that despite the undeniable fact that the Scottish Parliament has debated euthanasia thrice and thrice has rejected it, the ‘progressives’ are so sure of their doctrines that they’ll just keep bringing it back until they get their way. They despise democracy.

Some argued that this was an awesome debate – showing the advantages of informed discussion at this level. There were a couple of excellent speeches, including that of Humza Yousaf, the previous First Minister who spoke clearly against, but I’m more inclined towards the opinion of Kevin McKenna: “Let’s be honest here: there was little that was uplifting about this in any respect. It was a sickening display of narcissistic exceptionalism. A cohort of affluent, middle-class actors searching for group hugs and sympathy by weaponising the deaths of their family members to make a nasty law that might principally goal those with none of their decisions and privileges.”   

Again, I even have noted a pattern here: people congratulate themselves on a respectful and good debate – but keep going until they get what they need. And then all respect is thrown out of the window. 

The uncomfortable truth is that this victory may only be temporary.  The principle of assisted suicide was supported in the primary two stages however the bill itself was a badly worded, hubristic piece of laws. Until the foundations of Scottish society return to its Christian roots, I think that this reprieve may only last for a short while.