A controversial scientist is lobbying for his ‘do-it-yourself death pods’ to be used in Scotland, should it legalise assisted suicide.
Philip Nitschke has written to Liam McArthur, the MSP behind a proposed assisted suicide Bill at Holyrood, urging him to consider his invention.
The pods rapidly reduce the oxygen level inside the capsule by flooding it with nitrogen gas until the occupant is dead.
No safeguards
Dr Gordon Macdonald, Chief Executive of Care Not Killing, said: “Ordinary people will be shocked and appalled at Philip Nitschke’s attempt to lobby for the use of his personal gas chamber”.
Dr Macdonald warned that evidence showed assisted suicide “quickly can spin out of control” as seen in other countries such as Canada.
He said that, in other jurisdictions: “You can now have your life ended if you are suffering from mental health conditions such as treatable clinical depression, PTSD, disability, diabetes and a combination of other ailments.”
Dr Macdonald concluded: “when up to one in four Scots who would benefit from palliative care, don’t receive it, I would suggest this should be the focus of Parliamentary attention”.
Defeated
Earlier this year, over 100 organisations collaborated to criticise Liam McArthur’s assisted suicide Bill for using the term ‘assisted dying’.
The Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care raised concerns in response to the public consultation on the Assisted Dying (Scotland) Bill. If passed, the proposals would remove legal protections for patients who are believed to be terminally ill.
Two assisted suicide Bills have been defeated in the Scottish Parliament since 2010, most recently in 2015, when MSPs rejected Patrick Harvie’s Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill by 82 votes to 36.
A majority of MSPs in both the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Labour voted against the Bill, with MSPs from the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the SNP also rejecting the legislation, but both Scottish Green MSPs at the time voted in favour of the Bill.
McArthur Bill misrepresents assisted suicide, palliative care body warns
Psychiatrist: ‘Assisted suicide and euthanasia should have no part in Irish society’
Junior doctors reject assisted suicide push in Scotland
Assisted suicide gives ‘unaccountable power’ over the vulnerable, Bishop warns