by Bill Heaney
Liam McArthur MSP’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill has completed committee consideration of amendments in the Scottish Parliament’s legislative process.
Over the past month, the Health Committee has extensively debated almost 300 amendments from Mr McArthur and supporters and opponents of the bill.
Mr McArthur lodged a number of his own amendments responding to points raised by the Committee’s Stage 1 Report and to the input and advice of medical, legal and care organisations that he has met with in the months since his Bill passed its Stage 1 vote.
These amendments include clarifying that a person is not terminally ill only because they have a disability or mental disorder, that doctors can request input from health, social care and social work professionals involved in the care of a patient when considering if a person is eligible for an assisted death and that Scottish Ministers can determine the level of training, qualification and experience a registered medical practitioner or registered nurse performing the role of authorised health professional must have.
Additionally Liam McArthur MSP’s amendments, backed by the committee, introduce the following provisions:
• A “no-duty to participate directly in assisted dying” clause for health care professionals. This replaces the previous conscientious objection provision in the Bill. Alongside the training that any health care professional will complete in order to undertake assisted dying provision, this has the effect of creating an ‘opt in’ system rather than it being the responsibility of medical professionals to ‘opt out’.
• Adding to the offence already in the Bill of coercing or pressuring a terminally ill adult into making a first or second declaration, is a new offence of coercing or pressuring a terminally ill adult into using an approved substance.
• A duty on Scottish ministers to provide information to terminally ill adults, health, social work and social care professionals and the general public and to ensure that information is accessible and understandable.
• Inclusion on death certificates of the approved substance provided to an individual in addition to the terminal illness that contributed to their death.
Mr McArthur also backed an amendment from Sandesh Gulhane raising the age of eligibility to 18, having previously indicated that he would be open to bringing forward an amendment to this effect.
Liam McArthur MSP, pictured top of page, said: “I would like to thank members of the committee for their diligent scrutiny over the last four weeks as well as those MSPs who lodged amendments that allowed further debate on a wide variety of important issues. This has helped strengthen the bill and I am confident that this painstaking process will continue through Stage 3 in the new year.
“It is so important that we not only deliver a bill which offers the choice that a small number of terminally ill Scots desperately need but that we do so in a manner which underpins the Bill’s driving principles of safety, compassion and choice.
“The amendments that I put forward take on board the views of experts who will have a role in the delivery of extending the choice of assisted dying to terminally ill patients. The same is true of the amendments from other MSP colleagues that were accepted by the Committee. Together, these help balance the need for dying people to be able to access the option of assisted dying with strong protections and safeguards.
“I will now be having further conversations with colleagues and stakeholders to ensure that when the bill reaches its final vote in Parliament in the new year, it is one that a majority of MSPs can get behind.”
- In total there were 298 amendments lodged consisting of 287 individual amendments and 11 amendments to amendments. There were 74 total amendments agreed, with 67 individual and 7 amendments to amendments.