By Bill Heaney
A majority of people in West Dunbartonshire would be unlikely to support moves which would make Scotland the first UK nation to provide terminally-ill people with assistance to end their lives.
There will be no public referendum if a bill that was been introduced in the Holyrood parliament today becomes law — even though supporters of the legislation say it would ease suffering.
The one local person who will have a say in this important matter though is Dame Jackie Baillie, the Labour MSP for Dumbarton constituency, which includes Cardross, Helensburgh, Rhu and the Rosneath Peninsula, but is still considering which way she will vote..
Her colleague, Labour’s education spokesperson Pam Duncan-Glancy, told the BBC Scotland News tonight that she would definitely vote against the bill.
Labour’s Jackie Baillie and Pam Duncan Glancy and Conservative Pam Gosal.
Dame Jackie believes there are many questions still are to be answered about the impact any new legislation.
Both the late Margo McDonald, the SNP icon, and Dumbarton man Patrick Harvie, who is joint leader of the Green Party, presented bills which failed to receive sufficient support that would have allowed them to be carried.
This will be the third time that the Scottish Parliament has considered the issue.
In 2010, MSPs rejected Margo MacDonald’s End of Life Assistance Bill by 85 votes to 16.
The independent MSP, who had Parkinson’s Disease, died in 2014 and the cause was taken up by Patrick Harvie. His Assisted Suicide Bill was rejected by 82 votes to 36.
Opponents worry that some terminally-ill people could feel under pressure to end their lives.
The Scottish government says ministers and SNP backbenchers will not be instructed how to vote, as the matter is an issue of individual conscience.
First Minister Humza Yousaf, pictured left, who is a Muslim, has indicated that he is likely to vote against the bill, which is also opposed by the Church of Scotland, the Catholic Church in Scotland, the Free Presbyterian Church and the Scottish Association of Mosques. Pam Gosal, the Sikh List MSP for the West of Scotland, is also likely to vote again the bill becoming law.
Also almost certain to vote against are Scotland’s practising Catholics, Church of Scotland congregations and other Christian denominations, all of whom are traditionally opposed to assisted dying.
Bishop John Keenan, right, the Bishop of Paisley, tonight described what he called “the introduction of a dangerous idea that a citizen can lose their value and worth.”
He added added: “Assisted suicide sends a message that there are situations when suicide is an appropriate response to one’s individual circumstances, worries, anxieties. It normalises suicide and accepts that some people are beyond hope.”
Under the McArthur proposals, a patient could only request medical assistance to end their life if they had a terminal illness and had been ruled mentally fit to make the decision by two doctors.
Mr McArthur says “the terminal illness would need to be advanced and progressive” and the medics would have to ensure there was “no coercion.”
In addition, the patient must be aged 16 or over, a resident of Scotland for at least 12 months, and must administer the life-ending medication themselves.
Critics such as Dr Fiona MacCormick of the Association for Palliative Medicine (APM) say the new terminology is “harmful and unhelpful,” adding, “they’ve used very euphemistic language to talk about suicide.”
However, Mr McArthur says he would “strongly disagree,” because “we’re talking about people with a terminal illness, and the fact they are going to die has already been established.”
The MSP for Orkney Islands believes there has been a significant “mood shift” among his fellow parliamentarians since the issue was last debated and is hopeful that his proposal will be approved.
A new poll, carried out by Opinium Research for the campaign group Dignity in Dying, suggests clear public support for the proposal, with 78% of respondents in Scotland saying they supported “making it legal for someone to seek ‘assisted dying’ in the UK.”
But Dr MacCormick says she is concerned about the potential for inaccurate diagnosis and prognosis, undetected coercion, and fluctuating mental capacity in seriously-ill patients.
“As a palliative care doctor, when I see patients who are suffering, I don’t see the answer to their suffering as being to end the life of the sufferer,” she says.
But some terminally-ill patients say they would find the option reassuring even if they did not use it.
In 2015, at the age of 26, Mandie Malcolm was diagnosed with breast cancer which had spread to other parts of her body.
She was told that her life expectancy was two to five years.
Now 34, Ms Malcolm is still alive thanks to advances in cancer treatment but, she says, she lies awake at night worrying about how her life will end.
Until starting a new drug, she says, she was “bedridden for weeks and in huge amounts of pain.
“I really worry about my death. I worry that I’m going to suffer, horrifically, basically, and it does scare me,” she explains.
Ms Malcolm is strongly in favour of the assisted dying law, which she says would mean she could stop worrying about “dying a brutal death” and “enjoy the good times.”
“It would mean everything to me and my family,” she adds.
But campaigners against the measure point to laws enacted in Belgium and Canada where qualifying criteria have been loosened over time, leading to a sharp rise in the number of “assisted” deaths.
Mr McArthur says his proposed law is not modelled on those “permissive and expansive models” but on places such as the US state of Oregon where “the eligibility criteria has not changed at all” since becoming law in 1997.
He is supported by the broadcaster and campaigner, Dame Esther Rantzen, who recently revealed that she was considering travelling to Switzerland – where assisted suicide has been legal since 1942 – to die after being diagnosed with incurable lung cancer.
She says: “I want to congratulate the Scottish Parliament for prioritising this debate so that they can carefully consider this crucial issue and scrutinise this historic Assisted Dying Bill.”
Helen Malo of the charity Hospice UK says her organisation is neutral on the bill but wants better funding of palliative care.
Sister Rita Dawson, Chief Executive of the St Margaret of Scotland Hospice in West Dunbartonshire, pictured here with the late Queen Elizabeth and Professor Leo Martin, chair of the hospice board, has come out consistently against assisted dying and advocates palliative care.
Hospices support more than 21,000 people in Scotland each year, she says. But they are struggling, with only a third of their funding coming from the state, the rest from charitable donations, and rising costs.
“One in four people do not get access to specialist palliative care,” adds Ms Malo, who says that, as the nation ages, demand is expected to increase by a fifth by 2040.
“There are fewer specialist palliative care doctors in Scotland than there are MSPs,” says Dr MacCormick of the APM.
Without adequate palliative care, she says, the worry is that assisted suicide “is not just a choice. It becomes a suggestion, which then becomes an expectation and that our vulnerable patients are at risk.”
Supporters of the bill say they too want more funding for hospices and are prepared for a debate about how and if such a commitment could be woven into the bill.
They also know that moral, religious and practical objections must be overcome if the momentous change they propose is to become law.
Top picture: Sister Rita Dawson with the late Queen Elizabeth, Prince Philip and VIP visitors to the St Margaret of Scotland Hospice in West Dunbartonshire. Pictures by Bill Heaney