The results of a consultation by the Scottish Parliament on an assisted suicide Bill show members of the public remain deeply divided on the issue.
The Bill, which was introduced by the Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur earlier this year, aims to give people with “an advanced and progressive disease, illness or condition which they cannot recover from” the choice to lawfully request assistance from health professionals to end their own life.
Despite a campaign from assisted suicide groups to introduce assisted suicide to Scotland and mobilise the public to respond to the consultation, the results indicate respondents are almost equally split on their views.
49 per cent (10, 380) of the 21,056 who responded to the consultation fully support the Bill, with 48 per cent (10,120) strongly opposed to assisted suicide. 556 of respondents (2 per cent) said they were either partially opposed, partially supported or neutral on the Bill.
The campaign group Right to Life says the results, together with analysis of data released earlier this year, show that support for assisted suicide to be introduced in Scotland is declining.
Polling commissioned by the pro-assisted suicide lobby group, Dignity in Dying, showed that strong support for assisted dying in Scotland decreased from 55 per cent in 2019, to 45 per cent in 2023, and 40 per cent in 2024, according to an article by Professor David Albert Jones, Director of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, published in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
When he published the Bill McArthur said he was doing so because he believed the fact assisted dying is illegal in Scotland is “failing too many terminally ill Scots at the end of life.
“Naturally, the provisions I am proposing would be robustly safeguarded to ensure the process works as intended. Similar laws have been safely and successfully introduced in other countries and continue to enjoy strong public support.”
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, 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…
“As in other jurisdictions, people in Scotland at the end of their lives need assistance to live, not to die”.
Among the factors important to respondents who opposed the assisted suicide Bill in Scotland, 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".