MSPs have rushed through debates on scores of amendments to Liam McArthur’s assisted suicide Bill, the majority of the Committee choosing to reject most attempts by fellow MSPs to address problems with it.
Holyrood’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee considered 103 amendments on its last day of Stage Two scrutiny of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill, 83 were rejected or withdrawn. Across four sittings, the Committee’s majority voted against 138 amendments from fellow MSPs, some of which could have mitigated the worst effects of McArthur’s proposals.
The controversial Bill will now progress to Stage Three, where further amendments can be debated before the chamber holds a final vote on whether to pass the measures into law. Several MSPs said they only voted in favour of the Bill at Stage One to allow time for debate, and only eight would need to change their vote to block it.
‘Years left to life’
The Committee continued to reject key safeguards for hospices, including Jackie Baillie’s attempt on behalf of Children’s Hospices Across Scotland to protect young people from being pushed into assisted suicide.
She explained that the Bill’s definition of terminal illness covers “young people who potentially have years of stable life left to live, and that goes against the stated intention of the Bill that it should be reserved for those at end of life”.
The MSP highlighted that there are increasing treatment options for conditions such as spinal muscular atrophy, which could “dramatically” impact a young person’s prognosis and quality of life.
In the Committee’s previous session, amendments seeking to protect patients from coercion were also rejected.
Unprecedented
Meanwhile, speaking in the House of Lords at Westminster, former Cabinet Minister Lord Deben has debunked claims that Peers should rubber-stamp proposals to introduce assisted suicide in England and Wales.
He stated that he was not in favour of the Bill, adding: “but I am even more not in favour of a Bill which gets it wrong and does terrible damage”. He criticised Lord Falconer, sponsor of the Bill, for implying the Lords “should just pass anything”, urging Peers to “think of the people who are going to be damaged if we get it wrong.”
An unprecedented number of amendments have been tabled to Kim Leadbeater’s Private Member’s Bill. Activists have labelled this a delaying tactic. But others insist that debating amendments is necessary due to the lack of “due diligence and proper pre-legislative scrutiny”.
The UK Government has now allocated a further ten days for the Committee of the Whole House to consider more than a thousand remaining amendments. So far, only twenty-eight have been debated.
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