EGN NEWS DESK
Sharp criticism has been levelled towards plans to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland.
In their formal response to Liam McArthur’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, the Care Not Killing (CNK) alliance known as the proposals “uncontrollable, unethical, and pointless”.
The Bill would permit terminally in poor health folks aged 16 and over, who’ve been residing in Scotland for at the very least 12 months and are registered with a GP, to hunt assisted suicide.
CNK CEO Dr Gordon Macdonald hit out on the proposed eligibility standards, saying, “No-one must be eligible for assisted dying.”
He pointed to locations like Oregon, Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium the place the factors for assisted suicide has widened significantly since first being launched.
He expressed scepticism about proposed safeguards and argued that they might result in abuses, noting that in Oregon some individuals who died by assisted suicide admitted to feeling like a burden on their family members.
“It ought to stay illegal to provide folks with a substance for the aim of ending their very own life,” he mentioned.
In his submission, Dr Macdonald additionally questioned proposals to document the terminal sickness as the reason for demise, slightly than the assisted suicide, saying this amounted to “obligatory false reporting”.
“What consideration has been given to the conscience rights of docs and registrars who don’t want to falsify data?” he mentioned.
“This provision might be susceptible to a problem beneath Article Nine of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) – freedom of thought, conscience and faith.”
