MSPs reject mitigating amendments to ‘reckless’ assisted suicide Bill

A raft of amendments designed to mitigate the worst aspects of Liam McArthur’s controversial assisted suicide Bill have been rejected by MSPs.

The Health, Social Care and Sport Committee voted down a dozen proposals which, among other changes, would have restricted assisted suicide to those considered to have less than six months to live; offered protection for people with conditions such as anorexia nervosa and Down’s syndrome; and introduced greater ‘safeguards’ against coercion.

Under the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, those who have been resident in the country for at least twelve months could get help from a medic to kill themselves if they are deemed to be terminally ill.  As there is no specified life expectancy in the Bill, people who could go on to live for years will be able to access assisted suicide.

‘No protections’

Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy MBE, a wheelchair user and leading opponent of the Bill, said she would qualify for assisted suicide under McArthur’s Bill and that “as it stands, this legislation has no protections”.

Disabled MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy highlights the danger of assisted suicide in a society that devalues people’s lives. pic.twitter.com/8EYApEaekc

— The Christian Institute (@christianorguk) November 4, 2025

Conservative MSP Murdo Fraser warned Committee members that asking doctors and nurses to “provide the means” to end the lives of their patients would “blur the moral and professional boundaries upon which public trust in the NHS depends”.

Jeremy Balfour MSP, an Independent, feared by legalising assisted suicide, society is effectively saying to someone that while with appropriate treatment they could live for years longer, the state will also offer death as an alternative.

And Labour’s Rhoda Grant MSP expressed “real concerns” that if the proposals became law “people will opt for assisted dying due to a fear of having very little support at the end of their lives”.

Rhoda Grant MSP warns that people could request assisted suicide for fear of being unable to access support. pic.twitter.com/yP62POwYRi

— The Christian Institute (@christianorguk) November 4, 2025

Censorship zones

Gordon Macdonald, Chief Executive of Care Not Killing, accused the Committee of adopting “a Swiss cheese approach to legislation: vote it through now despite the holes, and promise to sort it out later. But this isn’t a minor policy tweak; it’s about life and death.

“On such a sensitive issue, with such serious risks to the most vulnerable, that attitude is reckless. Scotland deserves better than half-finished law-making.”

He also observed that the “volume of amendments”, totalling almost 300, “reflects deep-rooted and genuinely held concerns about this Bill and its risks for Scotland’s most vulnerable”.

In the coming weeks, the Committee is expected to vote on an amendment by one of its own members, Patrick Harvie MSP, on establishing censorship zones around assisted suicide centres to limit pro-life witness and offers of help to those seeking medical assistance to die.