From the UK Christian Medical Comment website A report by MSPs criticising the proposed assisted suicide Bill before Holyrood has been welcomed by campaigners opposing the legislation.The Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill, introduced by Green Party MSP Patrick Harvie, is due to have its first stage debate in the Scottish Parliament by the end of May. Continue reading

This article originally appeared in The Edinburgh News: The economic "argument" for euthanasia will come, if we don't plan for ageing and future population needs now.The Scottish Parliament votes on the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill before May's general election. Popular in the media is the claim that this is a battle of religious worldviews that forbid permission to kill (except in complicated cases of self-defence) dominating a neutral secular society based on human rights and the individual as centre of their own universe. This is not true. Continue reading

Assisted suicide is an assault on dignity by CALUM MACKELLAR first published in The ScotsmanWith the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill currently being discussed in the Scottish Parliament, it has become necessary to seek to understand, unpack and define one of the most contested themes being used by both sides of the debate; namely the concept of human dignity. Continue reading

by Paul Russell: The Telegraph newspaper today is reporting on the death of elderly cousins by suicide in Switzerland that took place last November.The story does not say why the details are only becoming available at this time but the cynic in me sees a deliberate link to the current debate in the Scottish Parliament on assisted suicide.Coming in like the tide the pro-assisted suicide brigade cites this tragedy as a reason why assisted suicide should be made legal in Britain. A tenuous connection to say the least.According to the report, 'Stuart Henderson, 86, and Phyllis McConachie, 89, took their lives together in a Swiss clinic in November last year. Neither was terminally ill.'Inseparable for the last 40 years of caring for each other, the report suggests that their developing ailments may well have seen them both become residents in separate nursing homes; something that they did not want to happen.Clearly they saw that they had no choice. How is this supporting self-determination and autonomy? How would making assisted suicide available in Scotland or England solve their concerns? It would not. All it would do is save a trip to Switzerland. Pro-assisted suicide group, Friends at the End told the media that British assisted suicide laws would have spared these elderly cousins 'the ordeal' of having to travel overseas to die. This is at best faux compassion because it does nothing to address the underlying problem which, in a caring society, should be relatively easy.Balancing out 'friends' the article reports Dr Peter Saunders from the UK CareNotKilling Alliance calling out these deaths as "a great tragedy". "Assisted suicide in these circumstances is the ultimate abandonment," he said."This tragic case strongly underlines the need for comprehensive and affordable patient-centred care in which people's social and spiritual needs and not just physical needs are provided for." Continue reading

An assisted suicide bill is slowly making its way through various committees of the Scottish parliament before ultimately being debated in Holyrood, the Scottish Parliament itself. This bill is something of a 'legacy bill' following as it does the death last April of the former champion of this cause, Margo MacDonald MSP who had sponsored an earlier, failed attempt.It is certainly worth a hat-tip to the Scots inasmuch as both MacDonald's bill and this new bill by Green MSP Patrick Harvie take some radically different approaches to the issue, presumably to attempt to make these efforts more palatable than other failed initiatives. However, the same concerns arise as with all legislation on euthanasia or assisted suicide: vulnerable people are not protected; the legislation is unsafe and open to abuse.I want to focus, however, on some of the rhetoric and suggestions from the UK pro-assisted suicide lobby on this bill that are as dangerous as they are facile and errant. Slogans and catch phrases are fine in so far as they highlight and encapsulate a policy position or campaign thrust, but when they attempt to lead the reader to a simplistic and patently false conclusion, they deserve scrutiny.This from a submission to one of the inquiries conducted on the Scottish bill:"A change in the law would allow honest conversations around dying to happen. Healthcare professionals could discuss options with patients who raise the question of assistance to die, exploring reasons for requesting assistance and what palliative and supportive options are available." Continue reading

As the debate intensifies in Scotland David Reilly reflects on what is at stake. by disability rights campaigner, David ReillyArticle first published in The Scotsman Continue reading

  If assisted suicide proposals lead so quickly to calls for children to be considered for assisted suicide, then who could possibly be fully safe under such a regime?The Scotsman Newspaper is once again covering the idea of access to assisted suicide for minors as a bill passes through a committee in Holyrood, the nation's parliament. Continue reading

  The Daily Mail in Scotland has a front page article claiming that Scottish Children's Charities have called for the inclusion of euthanasia for children to be included in the reach of the euthanasia bill under debate in Holyrood (Scottish Parliament).One group has apparently called for the revision of the extant lower age limit in the bill of 16 years of age if the bill passes into law. No slippery slope eh? Continue reading

This report from CareNotKilling Director, in the UKPeter Saunders Continue reading