MSPs’ warning of Suicide Bill ‘f laws’

A NEW report by MSPs has warned of dangerous flaws in the assisted suicide plans of the late independent MSP Margo MacDonald.

The justice committee said it lacks clarity over the role of the helper and that the time limit proposed from the second suicide request to the act of ending someone’s life could put them under unreasonable pressure.

The Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill will now be debated by the health committee, as part of a second bid to push it through. It previously failed when it was championed by Miss MacDonald in 2010.

The popular MSP campaigned for a change in the law after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 1996. When she died in April, Greens MSP Patrick Harvie took it on.

However, Christine Grahame, convener of the justice committee, warned: ‘The role of the licensed facilitator is one area where more detail is needed, especially given the potential consequences for those involved. We therefore recommend that the lead committee explores this and other issues in more depth.’

She added that ‘setting a time limit between the second request and the act of suicide might put unintended pressure on some people’ and warned a failure to tackle these i ssues could leave people vulnerable to prosecution.

Mr Harvie said he would be willing to make changes to the detail of the Bill but believed the principle should become law. Research by the lobby group My Life, My Death, My Choice last year found that 75 per cent of people back the proposed Bill.

However, many remain strongly opposed. Alistair Thompson from the Care Not Killing Alliance dubbed those who want to change the law ‘fanatics’ and said it could not be done ‘without dire consequences’.