Assisted dying attempts to legislate

DECEMBER 2010

Independent MSP Margot Macdonald’s End of Life Assistance Bill, which seeks to allow terminally ill people to chose when they die, is rejected following a vote in the Scottish Parliament

NOVEMBER 2013

Macdonald, who has Parkinson’s, launches her Assisted Suicide Bill, saying she has learned lessons from the previous attempt to legislate

APRIL 2014

Macdonald, a member of the Scottish Parliament since 1999, dies aged 70. Her husband Jim Sillars says: Today the brightest light in the Scottish political firmament has gone out

MAY 2015

MSPS again reject the legislation, which is taken forward by Green MSP Patrick Harvie following Macdonald’s death. This time the bill is defeated by 82 votes to 36.

SEPTEMBER 2021

Lib Dem MSP Liam Mcarthur lodges draft proposal for Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill

SEPTEMBER 2022

Mcarthur lodges the bill at Holyrood after a public consultation finds 76 per cent of 14,000 respondents in favour of the proposals, which would allow terminally ill and mentally competent adults to end their lives