The case of two elderly Scottish cousins who went to Switzerland to commit suicide rather than be separated, highlights the need for quality care here, regardless of whether assisted suicide is allowed.

Patrick Harvie, the Green MSP who is a leading supporter of the late Margo MacDonald's assisted suicide bill, was responding to news of the planned and assisted deaths of Stuart Henderson, 86, and his cousin, Phyllis McConachie, 89, from Troon.

They had lived together for 40 years. But they travelled to an assisted-dying organisation in Basel, where they were given lethal medication and died holding hands in November.

Mr Henderson was almost totally blind and was very frail, while his cousin was very deaf and had injured her hip in a fall. They feared that they could be put into separate nursing homes if she fell again.

Dr Erika Preisig, who runs Eternal Spirit clinic in Vasel told a Sunday newspaper: "The way they went, full of peace and happiness, is amazing. This is what happens when people who live together for a really long time go together."

It is thought likely that the two cousins from Ayrshire, had planned to end their lives by their own hands had an assisted death not been possible. However Ruedi Habegger, Preisig's brother and a member of the Eternal Spirit, came to Scotland to accompany them to Switzerland.

Dr Libby Wilson, one of the founders of the assisted-dying group Friends at the End, helped the cousins to make the arrangements for their suicides and said the case demonstrates the need to change the law in the UK to spare the frail elderly the ordeal of travelling abroad.

A former GP who went on to run the Family Planning and Well Women services in Glasgow, she told the Herald the couple had contacted the organisation "It may sound odd, but in fact this was a happy ending. They wanted to die together and this is what happened. They lived together very much like an old married couple. They almost knew what the other one was going to do before they had done it. They couldn't envisage life on their own. I know Dr Preisig and she is the most extraordinarily caring, considerate and principled woman."

Helen Wood, current convener of the Glasgow-based Friends at the End agreed "This story just serves to underline the need for progress on Margo MacDonald's Bill."

However Dr Peter Saunders, campaign director of the Care Not Killing alliance reportedly described it as a great tragedy that an elderly couple felt driven to this "desperate course of action".

" Assisted suicide in these circumstances is the ultimate abandonment. This tragic case strongly underlines the need for comprehensive and affordable patient-centred care," he said.

Patrick Harvie said "This case highlights something that both supporters and opponents of assisted suicide should be able to agree on - the need for high quality care especially for people with complex needs. Whether the option of assisted suicide is made legal in Scotland, or remains available only to those who can afford to travel overseas, we should be giving people the support they need to make choices on their own terms, instead of feeling they have no options left. "

Meanwhile a bill to introduce assisted dying for the terminally ill has been tabled in the House of Lords by Lord Falconer. It would allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose to terminally ill patients judged to have fewer than six months to live.