Contact your MSP on assisted suicide now!

The Scottish Parliament is expected to vote on doctor-assisted suicide in just one week (Tuesday 13th May).

The Bishops of Scotland have written to the Catholic community inviting them to reject the proposals and to contact their MSPs.

You can email your MSP in a few easy clicks at carenotkilling.scot

The pastoral letter was sent to every parish in the country and distributed at Masses last weekend.

They wrote: "Assisted suicide, allows the state to provide the means of killing our brothers and sisters.

"One of the tests of good law is that it ensures our weakest citizens can feel safe. This law does the opposite and frightens the most vulnerable all around us.

"When vulnerable people, including the elderly and disabled, express concerns about being a burden, the appropriate response is not to suggest that they have a duty to die.

"Rather, it is to commit ourselves to meeting their needs and providing the care and compassion they need to help them live."

The letter tied in with a day of prayer that took place on Sunday 4 May, including a Mass and Rosary led by Bishop John Keenan (Paisley Diocese) at St Augustine's Church in Coatbridge on Sunday.

 

Beyond Consent

Alicia Duncan will talk about her mother Donna, who died by assisted suicide in Canada in 2023.

Her experience shows how safeguards that seem robust can fail in practice.

Her mother’s death is a cautionary tale of safeguarding gone wrong.

Presented by Care Not Killing, Beyond Consent: Rethinking Assisted Suicide Through a Family's Eyes, will see Alicia will be in conversation with Dr Gillian Wright, a former palliative care doctor, on Thursday 24 April at 6:00pm.

Register at bit.ly/beyondconsent

This event is organised by Care not Killing.

Dangers of assisted suicide highlighted

A  public meeting took place at Ss Ninian & Triduana Church in Edinburgh on Friday to highlight the dangers of assisted suicide..

Brian Cairns from the Campaign Against Assisted Dying gave the keynote address, emphasising that “every person deserves to be safe under law, no exceptions”.

He warned that current assisted suicide proposals “undermine the common good for all".

Attendees came from a wide range of local parishes, including St Ninian’s, St John’s (Portobello), St Mary Magdalene’s (Bingham), St Mary, Star of the Sea (Leith) and St Teresa’s (Craigmillar)

Paul Atkin, Archdiocesan Pro-Life Officer, urged action, saying: “With both the UK and Scottish Parliaments expected to vote on assisted suicide proposals very soon, it’s vital that Catholics contact their MP and MSPs as soon as possible.

"The easiest way to do this is through the website: writetothem.com.”

The event was part of a wider initiative supported by The Alliance of Concern – Against Assisted Suicide, which includes Care Not Killing, Our Duty of Care, The Catholic Parliamentary Office, and the Glasgow Disability Alliance.

Archbishop on dangers of Assisted Suicide

Archbishop Leo Cushley visited the Scottish Parliament to highlight the dangers to vulnerable people of legalising assisted suicide.

He met with MSPs from the three largest parties yesterday ahead of a Spring vote on the Assisted Dying (Terminally Ill Adults) Bill.

All 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament are being given a special scroll which highlights heartbreaking cases where vulnerable people have either died as a result of an assisted death or have been offered it instead of care, including

Archbishop Cushley said: “I was pleased to meet MSPs from different parties who are very concerned about the Assisted Dying Bill.

“There are arguments in favour of choice, and in a democracy we have to consider them. But more importantly we must have a special concern for the poorest and the weakest in our society.

Archbishop Cushley and Paul Atkin, Pro-Life Officer for the Archdiocese, with a promotional copy of the scroll.

“In other countries where this has taken place, they are the ones to suffer, they have been the ones who have died as a result of this.”

Mark Griffin, Labour MSP for Central Region, said: “The proponents of legislation talk about ‘a choice’, but I have a real concern that a choice becomes an obligation.

“People may feel that they are a burden on society or their families, when that couldn’t be further from the truth; people want to look out for their family, they want to look out for their loved ones, and any kind of societal change that flips that perception needs to be avoided at all costs. That’s a real danger in this legislation.

“There are no safeguards strong enough to protect the most vulnerable in society. This Bill will put them at risk.”

This article reproduced with kind permission from the Scottish Catholic Parliamentary Office. See the scroll here. The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland has strongly opposed the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, urging UK Parliamentarians to abandon it in a submission to Bill’s Committee.

Scottish MPs reject assisted suicide

A clear majority of Scottish MPs voted against assisted suicide during the debate on the UK Parliament’s Assisted Dying Bill yesterday.  

The proposed Bill, which applies only to England and Wales, passed its Second Reading at Westminster by a majority of 330 to 275.

A majority of Scottish MPs voted against the Bill with 29 voting against, 17 for and 11 not voting or abstaining.

Paul Atkin, of the Archdiocesan pro-life office,  said: “Holyrood should not take this vote as support for the Assisted Dying Bill in Scotland - quite the opposite.

"Scottish MPs were intensively lobbied by their constituents and gave the issue deep consideration.

"A majority have been persuaded that assisted suicide is not right for our NHS.”

Bishop John Keenan has reacted to the UK Parliament's decision to pass Kim Leadbeater's assisted suicide Bill at second reading.

He said: "This is a sad day for the sick, the vulnerable and the disabled in society.

"Today’s vote strikes a blow against the foundational principle of medicine  'do no harm'.

"Since parliamentarians have voted to create a category of people that the state will help to commit suicide, doctors will now be invited to help their patients to kill themselves.

"As we have seen across the world, once enacted these laws are rapidly and dangerously expanded."

The bill passed its second reading with a vote of 330 to 275.

How they voted

MP Constituency Vote
Brian Leishman Alloa and Grangemouth Against
Kirsteen Sullivan Bathgate and Linlithgow Against
John Lamont Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk Against
Melanie Ward Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy Against
Katrina Murray Cumbernauld and Kirkintilloch Against
David Mundell Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale Against
Graeme Downie Dunfermline and Dollar For
Chris Murray Edinburgh East and Musselburgh For
Tracy Gilbert Edinburgh North and Leith For
Ian Murray Edinburgh South Did Not Vote
Scott Arthur Edinburgh South West Against
Christine Jardine Edinburgh West For
Euan Stainbank Falkirk For
Richard Baker Glenrothes and Mid Fife Against
Gregor Poynton Livingston For
Douglas Alexander Lothian East Did Not Vote
Susan Murray Mid Dunbartonshire For
Kirsty McNeill Midlothian For
Wendy Chamberlain North East Fife For
Chris Kane Stirling and Strathallan For

Euthanasia expert highlights dangers to Scotland

Catholics have been urged to share details of the Canadian experience of assisted dying with their MSPs by Canadian euthanasia expert Alex Schadenberg.

Addressing a recent meeting at Edinburgh’s Gillis Centre the Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, said: “The more politicians know about assisted dying, the less likely they are to vote for it.”

His comments came ahead of the Welsh Parliament (Senedd) decisively voting this week to reject a motion calling for Westminster to legalise assisted suicide.

Alex explained how the Canadian assisted dying law had failed despite initial promises of ‘strict safeguards.’

He highlighted the case of Christine Gauthier, a former member of the Canadian military and gold medal winning Paralympian, who approached the Veteran’s Affairs department of the Canadian Government asking for help with a wheelchair lift but was, instead, offered assisted suicide.

Canadian Alan Nichols was hospitalized over fears he might be suicidal. He submitted a request to be euthanized and was killed, despite concerns raised by his family and a nurse practitioner.

His application listed only one health condition as the reason for his request to die: hearing loss.

Schadenberg said:  “When the law was being proposed in Canada we pointed out all the failures of legalised euthanasia in the Netherlands and Belgium.  

"We were told ‘it will be OK here, there will be safeguards’ and these haven’t worked in Canada, either." 

He added: “It is essential that Scottish Catholics write to their MSPs explaining that safeguards don’t work and assisted suicide laws put vulnerable people at risk.”

Write to your MSPs to let them know your concern about Assisted Dying plans for Scotland at https://writetothem.com

Assisted Suicide: 'An attack on human dignity'

The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland has submitted evidence to the Scottish Parliament on a proposal to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland.

Responding to the call for views on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, the bishops said that “assisted suicide attacks human dignity and results in human life being increasingly valued on the basis of its efficiency and utility”.

They added that implicit in legal assisted suicide is the idea that “an individual can lose their value and worth”.

The bishops express grave concerns about the serious consequences of legal assisted suicide for the most vulnerable in society.

They wrote: “When the elderly and disabled express concerns about being a burden, the appropriate response is not to suggest that they have a duty to die; rather, it is to commit to meeting their needs and providing the care and compassion to help them live.

Assisted suicide undermines suicide prevention, the provision of palliative care, trust in doctors and puts pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives prematurely.

"If Scotland establishes the provision of death on demand and this becomes normal practice, how will that not become a cultural expectation for the vulnerable, including the elderly, disabled, and lonely?”

Embracing the sick

The bishops also quoted Samaritanus bonus, a letter by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the care of persons in the critical and terminal phases of life, saying that proponents of assisted suicide peddled a “false understanding of compassion”, adding that a correct understanding of compassion “consists not in causing death, but in embracing the sick, in supporting them in their difficulties, in offering them affection, attention, and the means to alleviate their suffering.”

The submission touched on the experience of other countries and states where assisted suicide and/or euthanasia is legal, including Canada, the Netherlands, and Oregon, with the bishops issuing a warning that, “No matter how well intentioned safeguards are, it is impossible for any government to draft assisted suicide laws which include legal protection from future expansion of those laws.”

The bishops said that it was “significant” that the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Association of Palliative Medicine in the UK are both opposed to assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Criticism

The Bill, introduced by Liam McArthur MSP, has attracted widespread criticism from experts for adopting an extremely broad definition of terminal illness which, in practice, is expected to include diabetes, dementia, and anorexia.

In conclusion, the bishops said that “assisted suicide undermines suicide prevention, the provision of palliative care, trust in doctors and puts pressure on vulnerable people to end their lives prematurely.”

The bishops added: “The poor and vulnerable are already struggling to live.

"Parliamentarians in Scotland ought to offer them care and support to live, not a concoction of drugs to die.

"Killing is not the solution to ill-health, poverty or any other social challenges.

"The state ought to support the provision of care, not deliberate killing, for those at the end of life.”

The submission was made to the Scottish Parliament's Health, Social Care and Sport Committee Committee. It will now consider all responses and take oral evidence from key experts and stakeholders in the coming months before publishing a report for MSPs.

WATCH: Assisted dying in Canada - a warning to Scotland

The dangers of assisted suicide were highlighted last night (13 June) by Ramona Coelho, a doctor based in Canada which has Medical Assistance in Dying.

She shares harrowing accounts of how the most vulnerable people in society, including the disabled, the elderly and those with mental health issues - are particularly at risk.

Watch below or on YouTube (30 min webinar with chapters).

Tell MSPs to oppose Assisted Suicide for Scotland. You can submit your views to The Scottish Parliament here. Submissions should be made by Friday 16 August. 

Catholics urged to reject ‘dangerous’ assisted suicide

The bishops of Scotland say Catholics must urge their MSPs to reject the recently published assisted suicide proposals.

They make the call in a pastoral letter that will be read out in all of Scotland’s 460 Catholic parishes, at all Masses on 27 & 28 April.

The bishops describe the proposal put forward by Liam McArthur MSP, as “dangerous".

They call on MSPs to focus their energies on improving palliative care which the bishops say is “underfunded and limited”.

When vulnerable people express concerns about being a burden, the appropriate response is not to suggest that they have a duty to die.

The letter states, that a law which “allows us to kill our brothers and sisters takes us down a dangerous spiral that always puts at risk the most vulnerable members of our society, including the elderly, and disabled, and those who struggle with mental health”.

The letter cites evidence from other jurisdictions where assisted suicide is legal, including Oregon, where consistently around half of people who choose assisted suicide do so because they feel they are a burden on their families or on their communities and healthcare system.

“When vulnerable people, including the elderly and disabled, express concerns about being a burden”, say the bishops, “the appropriate response is not to suggest that they have a duty to die; rather, it is to commit to meeting their needs and providing the care and compassion they need to help them live”.

The bishops point out: “When our society is already marked by so many inequalities, we do not need assisted suicide to put intolerable pressure on our most disadvantaged who do not have a voice in this debate.”

Please contact your MSP today to stop assisted suicide becoming legal in Scotland. Guidance on contacting your MSPs is available at www.rcpolitics.org/assistedsuicide, or email office@rcpolitics.org for more information. 

Bishop Keenan on 'damaging' assisted suicide Bill

The Catholic Church has responded to the publication of “The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill” by Liam McArthur MSP (above right).

Bishop John Keenan, the Bishop of Paisley (above left) has described it as “a dangerous idea that a citizen can lose their value and worth.”

His full statement is below.

“Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur has today published a damaging bill which attacks human dignity and introduces a dangerous idea that a citizen can lose their value and worth.

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill may refer to ‘assisted dying’, but this is a euphemistic term which doesn’t accurately describe the reality.

Assisted dying is already practised by our health professionals and organisations, in the form of palliative care.

An accurate term for what the Bill seeks to legalise is assisted suicide.

It is a law which will allow a doctor to provide a patient with a lethal cocktail of drugs to kill themselves.

Implicit in assisted suicide is that the value of human life is measured by efficiency and utility and not by dignity.

In crude terms, it means an individual can lose their value to society because of illness or disability.

We are called to care for those who suffer, including those at the end of life.

In this way, the appropriate response of civic society to suffering is not to facilitate death by prescription, but rather, to provide good, reliable care, including palliative care, for all those who need it.

Assisted suicide sends a message that there are situations when suicide is an appropriate response to one’s individual circumstances, worries, anxieties.

It normalises suicide and accepts that some people are beyond hope. 

Furthermore, assisted suicide undermines trust in doctors and damages the doctor- patient relationship. And in countries where assisted suicide is legal, there is evidence that vulnerable people, including the elderly and disabled, experience external pressure to end their lives.

In Oregon, where assisted suicide is legal, it is common for around half of people to list fear of being a burden as one reason for hastening their death.

It is little wonder that most major disability organisations in the UK are opposed to assisted suicide.

Assisted suicide is also uncontrollable.

Every country where assisted suicide or euthanasia is legal has seen so-called ‘safeguards’ eroded and eligibility criteria expanded to include people with arthritis, anorexia, autism, dementia.

And also, children.

When vulnerable people, including the elderly, poor and disabled, express concerns about being a burden, the appropriate response is not to suggest that they have a duty to die; rather, it is to commit to meeting their needs and providing the care and compassion they need to help them live.

This Bill has been introduced in Holy Week, when Christians reflect on the suffering, death and Resurrection of Jesus, the man who is their Lord and God and showed us what it means to be truly human.

Where Liam McArthur’s Bill sees little point in human suffering and promotes the idea that a person’s life can become so hopeless as to be no longer worthwhile, this week is a timely reminder that when we support each other in suffering it can lead to a truly dignified death and offer the best of hope and possibility for our world.”

Bishop John Keenan is vice president of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland and Bishop President for Marriage, Families and Life.