Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill: MSPs should give us all the right to make our final life choice – Christine Jardine

If my time is short and painful, I would like the decision on how life ends to be mine

In politics, it is a rare and special moment when a bill is presented which could expand our freedoms and change society for the better, for generations to come. We are at one of those pivotal moments.

On Thursday, the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill was introduced to the Scottish Parliament by my colleague Liam McArthur MSP. It is not a party-political issue. Instead, it is one on which each parliamentarian can decide, based on their own personal experience, conscience and what they have heard from constituents.

A personal decision. Something which many of those with a terminal diagnosis feel that they are currently denied when it comes to their own death. The right to make that final choice. It is an issue whose emotional and philosophical arguments have challenged the Scottish Parliament almost since its birth.

The late Margo MacDonald twice introduced bills on end-of-life choice which were rejected, and Patrick Harvie presented a third failed suggestion for change. But this time parliamentarians eager to reflect the public’s will on the issue can draw from both a hugely successful consultation exercise and a recent survey showing majority support for the change.

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They have evidence that, when we search our own consciences, three-quarters of Scots believe that, whatever our own wishes might be, each individual deserves the right to choose an assisted death in very particular circumstances. According to Liam McArthur’s bill, an individual can request an assisted death if they have had a terminal diagnosis, and been ruled mentally fit by two doctors.

Their illness would also have to be advanced and progressive, with safeguards to ensure the patient does not feel pressured. Some will point to the tremendous and compassionate palliative care available to those facing a terminal diagnosis as an alternative and a solution. For some, that will be what they choose. Their decision.

Those with a painful, terminal illness should be able to choose between palliative care and an assisted death (Picture: Pascal Pochard-Casabianca/AFP via Getty Images)

There are no words to describe the gratitude that those of us with loved ones who have received that care feel for the providers who eased their suffering with careful administration of medication and pain relief. I know from personal experience that, whilst the destination of those they care for may be laden with sadness, they make the journey immeasurably lighter. That is why a second bill being proposed by MSP Miles Briggs, yet to be published but due to come before Holyrood soon, offers a vital opportunity to ensure further improvements in the quality and availability of palliative care.

The most important word here, however, is choice. What it is that you perceive to be the best way to end your life, with the dignity that you want whether by opting for an active intervention or to allow palliative care to ease nature’s course.

It is a decision none of us wants to have to make. I do not know what I would want if it were me. But if I know that time is short and potentially painful for myself and my loved ones, I would like the decision on how it ends to be mine. Only mine. I will be hoping that my MSPs and others vote to allow me that final, personal, life choice.

Christine Jardine is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West