Ban on physician-assisted dying ‘does not work’: calls for legalization as bill is tabled in Scotland | UK News

A proposal to approve physician-assisted dying in Scotland will be tabled in Holyrood on Monday, in a third attempt to change the law.

The bill has the backing of a group of all-party MPs led by Liberal Democrat Liam McArthur, and would include caveats that assisted dying would only be available to “mentally competent” adults. the last phase.

“The blanket ban on this in Scotland and even the rest of the UK is not working,” McArthur told Sky News.

“It causes people to suffer prolonged and often painful deaths unnecessarily, regardless of the best palliative care we’re lucky enough to have. [about] offering that choice. “

This choice would have been welcomed by Gill Baird-Sangster, who suffered from terminal cancer.

His wife Leighanne Baird-Sangster said the disease had wreaked havoc on Gill’s body in the last year of her life and being able to choose when to end her suffering would have relieved her.

Leighanne said: “Gill was so sick and literally losing her dignity, unable to swallow, lying in bed on a catheter, she couldn’t speak.

“And I know 100% that if we had had a choice, and she could have gone to a set point or known when there was a point of no return, if the consultant had told me: ‘That there it is, it’s over. of life now ‘, I know without a doubt that she would have chosen when the end had come for her. “

But few questions divide as much as aid in dying.

The British Medical Association opposes it, while the Royal College of Physicians takes a neutral stance.

In 2018, the Supreme Court dismissed an appeal from Noel Conway – who suffered from motor neuron disease and died this month – to let him end his life.

And critics say that legalizing physician-assisted dying would open the door for vulnerable people being abused or forced to end their lives.

Dr Gordon Macdonald, Managing Director of Care …