POLITICIANS have described a Bill to allow assisted suicide in Scotland as "significantly flawed" - but left it up to individual MSPs to decide how to vote.

A report issued by the Health and Sport Committee of the Scottish Parliament, which has scrutinised the proposal, warns there are "major challenges" to taking forward the legislation.

Their words have been welcomed by campaigners fighting against the Bill - which would create a system for helping people who are seriously ill and want to end their own life.

However, the report stops short of telling MSPs to throw out the Bill.

When a special committee examined a previous bid to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland in 2010, they said it should be rejected.

This time, the MSPs note the "good intentions" of the politician behind the Bill and conclude: "Whilst the majority of the committee does not support the general principles of the Bill, given that the issue of assisted suicide is a matter of conscience, the committee has chosen to make no formal recommendation to the parliament on the Bill."

Independent MSP Margo Macdonald brought both Bills to Holyrood and since she died last year Green MSP Patrick Harvie has championed her cause.

In recent weeks legal experts from Scottish universities have called for clear guidance on how anyone who helps a loved one to die will be treated by the law, saying there is an "alarming lack of clarity" in Scotland. Advice has been published showing when an assisted death is likely, or unlikely, to lead to prosecution in England.

However, the Health and Sport Committee report says the lack of clarity is a separate issue from permitting assisted suicides and goes on to raise concern that many aspects of the Bill itself are unclear. It questions what some of the words mean and what the "licensed facilitators," who would be introduced to help people die, would be allowed to do.

Nor were the MSPs persuaded that assisted suicides were an extension of existing practices such as patients refusing treatment or doctors giving doses of pain relief to terminally ill patients knowing the medication could hasten death.

The committee heard the bill could create a culture where people felt a "duty to be dead" and the report raises concern it could "communicate an offensive message to certain members of our community (many of whom may be particularly vulnerable) that society would regard it as 'reasonable', rather than tragic, if they wished to end their lives."

Dr Gordon Macdonald, of campaign group Care Not Killing, said: "This report confirms what we have said along.

"The bill is poorly thought out, ill-conceived, badly-drafted and effectively not fit for purpose.

"We are delighted that the committee agrees with us that the Bill contains significant flaws which are likely to prevent it from being enacted."

Sheila Duffy, spokeswoman for My Life, My Death, My Choice - which supports assisted dying, said: "We are content that the Health and Sport Committee has produced a report which seeks to inform the debate and makes no formal recommendation to the parliament on the Stage One vote, leaving the issue up to each MSP to decide for themselves. This is only right and proper with an issue subject to a free vote but is a huge step forward from a similar stage of previous attempts at this kind of legislation, reflecting the improvements that have been made."

She conceded amendments were required, but called for the Bill to pass Stage One to reflect public support for the debate.

MSPs are expected to vote on the proposal by the end of May. Last time the Bill was defeated by 85 votes to 16.