๐ ๐ฆ๐ฃ๐ ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ถ๐ป๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ผ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ป ๐ฎ๐๐๐ถ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ฑ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด: ๐ฎ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐ฎ๐๐๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐บ๐ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ฒ ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐ฝ๐ฟ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ผ๐๐๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐๐น๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑ ๐ณ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ณ๐๐น ๐ฆ๐ฐ๐ผ๐๐
The Scottish Parliament stands at a moment of profound moral consequence. On Tuesday, MSPs will cast their final vote on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Billโlegislation that would change healthcare forever by permitting, for the first time, physician-assisted suicide.
This Bill is a serious threat to vulnerable Scots, including the elderly, disabled, those who suffer from poor mental health, and victims of domestic abuse. In a world that often prizes independence, those who are vulnerable can easily feel like a burden.
An amendment to the Bill that would have prevented doctors from being able to raise assisted suicide unprompted with patients, was rejected; a decision that, in one move, dismantles thousands of years of Hippocratic tradition of โfirst do no harmโ.
This decision only adds to already significant concerns expressed by MSPs about the risk of coercion, demonstrating a keen awareness of their responsibility to protect vulnerable people from this threat.
The crucial conscientious objection clauses that offered protection to doctors have been stripped out of the Bill which means MSPs will be asked to vote on an incomplete Bill devoid of a key protection for healthcare workers. This has moved the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Scotland to switch from a position of neutrality to one of opposition to the Bill.
Furthermore, an institutional opt-out was disappointingly voted down by MSPs, meaning Catholic hospices and care homes would be forced to close rather than provide assisted suicides in a hammer blow to an already creaking palliative care system.
True compassion is not found in killing but in walking with those who suffer, ensuring they receive the medical, emotional, and spiritual care that affirms their inherent worth. Every personโregardless of age, illness, disability, or circumstanceโis a gift from God. There is no such thing as a life without value. Our task as a society is not to eliminate suffering by eliminating the sufferer, but to surround every individual with love, support, and dignity until their natural end.
I understand how the choice before our MSPs is unenviable, because it is now a binary one; either they vote to allow some citizens a new autonomy, or they vote to protect thousands of vulnerable and fearful Scots who do not want this legislation and who will suffer most if this Bill passes. They cannot do both at the same time, and I would urge them, in the last analysis, to think of those who, in the months and years ahead, will find themselves defenceless and who, at this moment, are depending on them most.
Bishop John Keenan
President of the Bishopsโ Conference of Scotland
