Parkinson's sufferer backs Margo Bill to allow assisted dying

Published on Tuesday 31 August 2010 19:10

A WOMAN suffering from Parkinson's Disease today spoke out in favour of Independent Lothians MSP Margo MacDonald's Bill to allow assisted dying.

Julie Johnston, 69, who sees her condition steadily deteriorating, said she believed people in her position should have a choice about bringing their life to an end.

Meanwhile, the Humanist Society of Scotland launched a "Let Me Choose" campaign in support of the Bill.

Ms MacDonald said she believed if MSPs voted in line with the views of their constituents there was a chance the legislation could be passed.

Under the Bill, people who feel their lives have become intolerable through terminal illness or a degenerative condition could ask for assistance to end their life, subject to a range of safeguards.

Mrs Johnston, of Gayfield Square, said she was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1989.

"It was noticeable, but for many years it was not bothering me," she said.

"Then, two years ago, I started to have hallucinations and I was falling over on a daily basis. It has been more or less like that ever since."

She has had to give up her favourite pastimes of gardening, sewing and embroidery. She cannot go out on her own and uses a walking stick indoors and a three-wheeled walker when she ventures out.

She said: "Each day, step by step, what has made a good life for me is gradually being eroded."

She believes she could reach the point where she knows she has had enough and feels it would be a comfort to know she could ask for assistance in ending her life.

"I think quite strongly I would like someone to give me relief," she said. "Margo's trying to give people like me control of our lives. I want to be able do what is necessary with help and guidance.

"I'm very basic in what I think. I just feel the people should be given a choice."

Her husband Andrew, 73, shares her view. He said: "Her illness is not going to get any better. We feel there should be a choice and a choice in Scotland. People should not have to go to Dignitas."

Unveiling the Humanist Society of Scotland's campaign in support of the Bill, secretary John Bishop said surveys showed most people supported physician-assisted suicide.

He said: "There has to be a better way than Parkinson's Disease sufferers ending their lives by jumping off a bridge or going to a clinic in Switzerland."

Ms MacDonald, who also has Parkinson's, said she was "more than pleased" to have the support of the Humanist Society. She said: "I have got to know the people who are members of the society and found them to be very caring, very responsible and community-minded people, the very sort of people who have thought the issue through seriously."

Ms MacDonald said a majority of the public also backed the Bill. She said: "I'm pretty sure that if people get in touch with their MSPs and tell them they support the Bill and they want their MSP to do so too, this legislation could pass."