Fewer than half of the people who responded to a Scottish Parliament consultation on Liam McArthur’s Assisted Dying Bill fully support it.

Right to Life said the results indicate there is not overwhelming support for the Bill, despite a large campaign.

Earlier this year, the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee issued two calls for views, which were open to submissions with respondents able to say whether they fully or partially, supported or opposed the proposed legislation, or say whether they were neutral or did not know.

Among those factors important to respondents who opposed Bill, responses included “risk of coercion of vulnerable people”, “risk of devaluing lives of vulnerable groups” and “risk of eligibility being broadened and safeguards reduced over time”.

Catherine Robinson, of Right To Life UK, said: “Despite a massive campaign from assisted suicide groups to introduce assisted suicide to Scotland and mobilise the public to respond to the consultation, the results of this consultation indicate there is not overwhelming support for Liam McArthur’s assisted suicide Bill from the general public.

“Instead, the responses indicate the public is deeply divided on the issue.”

She added: “Perhaps part of the reason for this decline in support comes from increased awareness about assisted suicide and euthanasia in Canada where the law has rapidly expanded, and where there has been increased support for euthanasia for poverty and homelessness. As in other jurisdictions, people in Scotland at the end of their lives need assistance to live, not to die.”

Meanwhile, On Sunday, Pope Francis, left,  returned from a brief, but eventful visit to Luxembourg and Belgium, where as Ruth Gledhill reports, again in The Tablet re;ligion magazine, that he was “taken to task” over “the Catholic Church’s record on women, on abuse and on LGBTQ issues.

Ruth Gledhill writes: “King Philippe of Belgium told him it had taken the Church “far too long” to address the abuse scandals and Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said the Church had “a long way to go” and that words on their own were not enough, according to Reuters. Referring to the abuse, Pope Francis acknowledged the Church’s “shame and humiliation” and asked for forgiveness.

More than three years ago the Catholic Church in England and Wales launched yet another safeguarding body to ensure that the abuse scandals of the past would never happen again – and the pain, often lifelong, of victims would not be repeated either.

But if anybody thought the creation of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency – charged with providing independent scrutiny of safeguarding within dioceses and religious groups – would bring the scandals to an end,they would have been gravely disappointed, writesCatherine Pepinster in this week’s print edition of The Tablet. In fact, Catherine argues, Catholics’ trust in Church leaders may never be fully restored until safeguarding is seen to be fully independent of the bishops. Will that ever happen?

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