Scots 'back my assisted suicide Bill', says MSP

Published on Sunday 28 November 2010 15:04

The politician behind plans to legalise assisted suicide urged MSPs to recognise the weight of public opinion and help the proposals overcome a key parliamentary hurdle.

Independent MSP Margo MacDonald is hoping to change the law this week to make Scotland the first part of the UK where doctors could legally help patients to die.

She recently revealed poll findings suggesting nearly eight out of ten Scots back her plans.

The Scottish Parliament is due to vote on the general principles of the End of Life Assistance Bill on Wednesday.

In an interview on BBC television yesterday, Ms MacDonald said: "Public opinion is in favour of it progressing to the next stage. If it should go through on Wednesday then it goes back to committee and it's scrutinised line by line, clause by clause.

"Public opinion wants to see that happen because opinion polling is just too consistent.

"It's the people who are paying for us supposedly to represent them. If they have their way, it will go through to the next stage. That doesn't mean to say it will become law, but it means that there's going to be further examination of it, and it's needed."

The survey recently released by the Lothians MSP, carried out by Angus Reid Public Opinion, found 77 per cent of Scots agreed people with "intolerable terminal illnesses" should have the option of being helped to end their life if they wished to do so.

She told the programme: "Are we to infer from this that the communities in the world where they have assisted dying lack humanity?

"Are we going to say that about Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Oregon and the other states in America where they're busily trying to find a way of incorporating this into their law?"