Thursday November 14, 2014, Margo MacDonald has launched her new Members Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill. She hosted together with Patrick Harvie MSP the official launch in the MacDonald Holyrood Hotel. Also attending will be MSP’s representing all of the political parties at Holyrood, Sylvan Luley from DIGNITAS, Switzerland, as well as GP’s, Humanist Celebrants, lawyers and other assisted death campaigners.
The Scotsman (Andrew Whitaker) reported:
A controversial bill that would legalise assisted suicide will not be blocked by the party leaders and is more likely to be passed by Holyrood than a previous attempt to change the law, Independent MSP Margo MacDonald has claimed. Ms MacDonald said her Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill would be ‘totally free’ from party pressure as she claimed there had been a shift in attitudes among MSPs on the issue.
The Lothians MSP made the claims as the bill was formally launched today in Edinburgh, when medics, church leaders and lawyers backed the latest attempt to change the law on assisted suicide. Silvan Luley, of Swiss group Dignitas that helps those with terminal illness end their lives, said it was an ‘atrocity’ that Scots did not have the right to assisted suicide.
Ms MacDonald’s previous attempt to legalise assisted suicide was defeated in the last parliament, but the MSP insisted the public now had better awareness of the issue. She said that a Holyrood vote on the issue would ‘not be influenced by the leaders’ of the main parties as she suggested the move would be considered by parliament next year.
The text of the Bill can be found here.