'I want right to end my own life' Margo MacDonald tells fellow MSPs

Published on Thursday 27 March 2008 09:16

INDEPENDENT Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald has told the Scottish Parliament she wants the right to end her own life.

Ms MacDonald, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, said she should be allowed to bring about her own death if her condition deteriorated to a point where life was unbearable.

Her comments came during a debate on choices for patients coming to the end of a terminal illness – including the possibility of legal support for assisting them to die.

"As you know I have a degenerative condition," Ms MacDonald told fellow MSPs. "And I would like to have the right to determine by how much my capacity to fulfil my social function, my familial functions, my personal functions is going to be truncated.

"And I would like to have the ability to take that decision. I don't want to burden any doctor. I don't want to burden any friend or family member. I want to find a way in which I can take the decision to end my life in case I'm unlucky enough to have the worst form of Parkinson's near the end of life."

She said doctors admitted palliative care was not always as effective as everyone would want.

"I'm mindful of that and I might be unlucky," she added. "I apologise for being personal in this, but it's not a theory with me."

To brand it "illegal" for someone to "force themselves to die" was to deny the bravery of "countless soldiers" throughout the ages, she added.

"People have made that decision for one reason or another," she said. "It is just that we're now accepting that its possible to make that decision when you are in sound mind and it can be taken in a measured capacity."

Ms MacDonald added: "I am mindful of what the doctors say and how difficult it is for them.

"However, I have read the personal testimony of doctors and have seen doctors who have admitted in court to assisting a suicide. They are no less doctors in my estimation."

Ms MacDonald was speaking in a members' debate called by Liberal Democrat MSP Jeremy Purvis.

He restated his view that the law should be changed to allow terminally ill people to be allowed to ask for assistance to die. He said: "The time is right for the Parliament to be able to hold a full and open inquiry into choices that people can and should be able to make at the end of a terminal illness."

Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said at this stage the government had no plans to change the law.