PLANS to create a new law to legalise assisted suicide and living wills have been announced in the Scottish Parliament.
The veteran independent MSP Margo MacDonald yesterday announced she proposes to put forward a bill in Holyrood next year to allow people who are terminally ill or living with unbearable conditions to end their life.
And she wants the partner
s and friends of these people to be protected from investigation and prosecution if they help them commit suicide.
Ms MacDonald, who has Parkinson's disease, hit the headlines earlier this year when she announced her intention to end her life when her condition becomes unbearable.
She said that recent cases have highlighted the need for a law.
Her plans for new legislation come a day after Debbie Purdy, who is confined to a wheelchair by multiple sclerosis, failed in her bid to clarify the law on assisted suicide in England.
Earlier this month, West Mercia Police revealed they were investigating the death of the paralysed rugby player Daniel James, 23, in a Swiss assisted suicide clinic, where he had travelled with the intention of killing himself.
In Scotland there is no case law on what punishment those who assist suicides may face, and Ms MacDonald said she wanted to avoid Scottish courts making decisions based on English laws.
She said: "I believe it inhumane and ultimately futile for the law to deny this right to choose."
Ms MacDonald said she hoped to instigate a "searching public debate" on the issue.
And she added: "There has been a rise in public interest in this topic, and politicians have something of a duty to investigate it, since it impacts on so many people and their families."
Ms MacDonald's bill would incorporate the patient's right to choose to end his or her life, with assistance, into the principles of palliative care. The MSP said she believed living wills, which indicate patients' wishes to die in circumstances where they can no longer express a view, should be "part of the jigsaw" of the bill.
However, she admitted that there could be complications with this, particularly with patients who suffer from Alzheimers.
Ms MacDonald travelled to the Netherlands last year to make a television documentary on the issue. The Dutch system allows patients to enlist the help of a trained and recognised medical practitioner.
"I was convinced the Dutch way was preferable by far to the trek to Switzerland undertaken by an estimated 100-plus UK citizens, who would have jeopardised the legal position of anyone giving them assistance," she said.
"This is where the Dutch experience is very valuable to me. One of the things they stressed was that before a patient would ask a physician to help them exercise their choice, the physician had to have a proper knowledge of that patient."
There are questions over whether Ms MacDonald will have enough support to table the bill. All four main party spokesmen on health have indicated they are against it, although the issue would almost certainly be a free vote.
Currently, the only declared supporter is Liberal Democrat MSP Jeremy Purvis.
Ms MacDonald said she also expected vociferous opposition from pro-life groups and the Roman Catholic Church.
She said: "I have been known to have vociferous views of my own. I respect their views, I just don't agree with them."
A spokeswoman for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland said the church intended to play a full part in the consultation process.
The consultation is to be launched next month and Ms MacDonald hopes to bring forward a bill after Easter.
The full article contains 604 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
