Ethics body brands bill on suicide 'dangerous'

Published on Monday 20 April 2009 22:08

PROPOSALS to legalise assisted suicide were yesterday branded "dangerous and unnecessary" by a medical ethics body.

Independent MSP Margo MacDonald's bill would change the way death and disability are viewed by society, according to the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics.

"Assisted dying is unnecessary because physical suffering can be adequately alleviated in all but the most rare cases," the council said in a statement.

Director of research Dr Callum MacKellar said that "appropriate palliative care" can help address this.

"When dying patients realise that they do not need to suffer, they often change their minds about euthanasia," he said.

The statement also said assisted dying is "dangerous" because it will change views on death and disability and mean Scottish society accepts – for the first time – that some lives are no longer worth living.

The council was formed in 1997 and is an independent, non-partisan, non-religious council composed of physicians, lawyers, ethicists and other professionals from disciplines associated with medical ethics.

The Lothians MSP needs the support of at least 18 MSPs to bring her proposed End Of Life Choices (Scotland) Bill before Holyrood.

The proposed law allows people with a progressive degenerative condition, those who have been left dependent on others, and those with a terminal illness and for whom life has become intolerable to seek a doctor's help in dying.