Holyrood could pass an Assisted Dying law as early as next year – giving Scots the right to die.
Liam McArthur, the LibDem MSP behind the new bill working its way through the Scottish Parliament, believes there’s now enough support for it to pass.
In an exclusive interview with the Herald on Sunday, Mr McArthur said the bill would lead to a change in the law in Scotland, increasing the choices available to people at the end of their lives.
McArthur’s bill easily got the 18 cross-party supporters necessary for it to be introduced to Parliament.
The bill would allow those at the end of their life to choose to pass on with medical help. Only those diagnosed with a terminal illness would be allowed to access the law.
They must also be deemed to have ‘mental capacity’, and the agreement of two doctors is required. A 14-day cooling-off period, and lethal drugs must be self-administered.
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Read more around this issue:
Right-to-die may become law in Scotland as early as 2025
Sue Webber to oppose Bill over legislative creep fear
Inside Scotland’s controversial right-to-die plans
Previous attempts to introduce an Assisted Dying law have failed. In 2005, a bill by LibDem MSP Jeremy Purvis was unable to get the 18 supporters needed. Then a bill by Margo MacDonald also failed at an early stage when it got just 36 votes in 2015. She died of Parkinson’s before the vote.
But Liam McArthur believes opinions have changed. He said: “This time the political mood has shifted. More MSPs have experience of someone they know passing away in very difficult circumstances … That goes with an intellectual belief that the status quo isn’t tolerable or acceptable and is throwing up too many instances of ‘bad deaths’.”
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