News In Focus
21 April 2009
Ethics body challenges MacDonald bill proposal
The proposed bill to introduce assisted suicide in Scotland risks turning disabled and terminally ill people into "second class citizens", according to a medical ethics body.
In a statement just issued the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics said that assisted dying was unnecessary because physical suffering can be adequately alleviated in all but the most rare cases. risked turning disabled and terminally ill people into second class citizens.
Margo MacDonald MSP, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, has pledged to introduce the bill later this year if she wins the backing of the 18 MSPs needed for a member's bill. It would allow someone whose life becomes intolerable through a degenerative condition or terminal illness to seek a doctor's help in dying.
Describing the proposal as "dangerous and unnecessary", the Council said assisted dying would change views on death and disability and mean Scottish society accepted – for the first time – that some lives were no longer worth living.
Changing minds
Director of research Dr Callum MacKellar said: "When dying patients realise that they do not need to suffer, they often change their minds about euthanasia."
He added: "People who are difficult or costly to care for may begin to be seen as burdens to society or second-class citizens.
"In addition, it would fundamentally change the role of doctors and other health care professionals, whose role has always been to cure and care for patients, not to kill them."
The council was formed in 1997 and is an independent, non-partisan, non-religious council composed of physicians, lawyers, ethicists and other professionals from disciplines associated with medical ethics.