Hugely controversial bill has split the sector

Campaigners have warned that the risks around allowing assisted dying are too high.

It comes as MSPs are poised to vote on legislation today at the Scottish Parliament.

Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA) and its 6,000 disabled members are just one group urging MSPs to hear their voices and vote against the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill with around 60 disabled people set to rally outside the Scottish Parliament.

Many have opposed the bill including Pam Duncan-Glancy, Scottish Labour education spokesperson and one of Holyrood’s few disabled MSPs, who said it was a mistake to see the issue as one about choice and personal autonomy. It had far-reaching consequences, she added.

She opposed the bill because “we are legislating for the state to assist someone to take their own life, and in almost every other circumstance we want the state to legislate for people to live and live well”.

Tressa Burke, GDA CEO said the bill’s definition of “terminally ill” is dangerously broad and would include many disabled people with conditions that are ‘advanced and progressive, and which will cause their premature death’.

“This places many of us in grave danger at times when we may be at our most vulnerable,” she said.

“Disabled people face multiple barriers and discrimination on a daily basis and our lives are endangered by the lack of equitable access to vital services including social care, healthcare, pain management support and cancer screening programmes.

“Disabled people already face a higher risk of becoming more ill and dying prematurely due to the inaccessibility and sustained cuts to services and wider supports.”

GDA campaigners fear there are no safeguards that will prevent coercion and abuse in the legislation – when there are numerous examples of disabled people being abused within places of safety such as care homes, hospitals and schools- which are subject to statutory safeguarding.

The bill makes clear that the person must have the mental capacity at the time of death to understand their decision, and the ability to carry out the procedure to end their life without someone’s help.

“Mistakes will be made. We ask - How many avoidable deaths are MSPs willing to risk?” Burke added.  

Marianne Scobie, depute CEO of GDA, said that coercion is extremely difficult to detect.

“Many of our members tell us they have not seen their GP in person for years, and the difficulty in securing GP appointments was recently highlighted in the Programme for Government.

“Many disabled people rely on family members to provide the vital care and support they need. This increases their feelings of being a burden on their families. These factors make them extremely vulnerable to abuse and coercion including self-coercion.”

Today’s stage one vote will allow the bill to be scrutinised in detail and amended by a committee of MSPs, but some prominent politicians have spoken out against it, including all three of Scotland’s most recent first ministers – John Swinney, Humza Yousaf and Nicola Sturgeon.

Pro-change campaigners Dignity in Dying argue that, along with good care, dying people who are terminally ill and mentally competent adults deserve the choice to control the timing and manner of their death.

The campaign group Care Not Killing uses the terms “assisted suicide” and “euthanasia” and argues that the focus should be on “promoting more and better palliative care” rather than any law change.

They say legalising assisted dying could “place pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives for fear of being a financial, emotional or care burden upon others” and argue the disabled, elderly, sick or depressed could be especially at risk.

Fraser Sutherland, the chief executive of the Humanist Society of Scotland, who plans to speak in favour of the bill outside Holyrood, said the “vast majority” of Scottish voters supported its measures and urged MSPs to be “bold, brave, and compassionate”.

“This bill is about compassion, dignity and the fundamental right to choose,” he said. “Right now, too many Scots with terminal illnesses are forced to suffer or die abroad simply because the law denies them control over their final moments. That is not humane and it must change.

“Assisted dying is not a fringe idea, it is mainstream.”

The most recent Holyrood vote on assisted dying, in 2015, was defeated at stage one by 82 votes to 36.

That bill was tabled by the late independent MSP Margo MacDonald, who died in 2014 after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease.

Following her death, the bill was taken up by the Scottish Greens' Patrick Harvie, who will again argue in favour of a law change.