Defeat of Holyrood’s assisted dying Bill ‘strengthens our resolve’ – campaigners
Supporters of the change have insisted the issue is ‘not going away’ after MSPs voted down the proposed legislation.
Supporters of assisted dying have said the defeat of a Bill at Holyrood has “strengthened” their desire for a change in the law.
Leighanne Baird-Sangster had backed Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur’s bid to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill Scots after watching both her wife Gill and her sister Victoria die from cancer.
She said she was “gutted” the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill was rejected by 57 votes to 69 in its final vote at Holyrood on Tuesday night.
But the campaigner told BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast programme on Wednesday: “This issue is going nowhere.
“We have seen a huge groundswell of support, with nearly eight in 10 Scots backing change, and people like me, families who have lived through it, we won’t rest until dying people have real choice.
“If anything, last night has only strengthened our resolve.”
Ms Baird-Sangster, from Edinburgh, added: “When you have watched two people you love die from terminal cancer, you understand what this really means.”
She said she had spoken up “on behalf of Gill, Victoria and the people that sadly are going to continue to come after them”.
Speaking about her wife, she added: “We always knew although she could choose her funeral music, she couldn’t choose that vital last moment.”
While opponents of assisted dying hailed the result of Tuesday’s Holyrood vote as a “victory for the vulnerable”, Mr McArthur said afterwards he was “obviously deeply disappointed” with the result.
He added: “This is not a conversation that is going away.
“For so long as dying Scots continue to suffer as a result of the lack of choice and safety afforded to them by the current law, I’m certain that it will be an issue in front of Parliament once more.”
Ally Thomson, director of campaign group Dignity in Dying Scotland, said there is “now near universal recognition that the current law is harmful to dying people”.
She declared: For as long as dying Scots continue to suffer, this debate is not going away.”
However Michelle Anna Moffat, a former nurse from Dunbartonshire, insisted “the duty of law is to protect the most vulnerable in society when they can’t protect themselves”.
She was left paralysed after a spinal accident and at one point considered travelling to Switzerland to seek an assisted death.
Ms Moffat, who also suffers from gastric failure which causes her daily vomiting and pain, told BBC Radio Scotland: “If it had been legal here I wouldn’t be here talking to you right now.
“I do understand that people want to have choice, but the choice of a few can put pressure on a huge amount, and I think the duty of law is to protect the most vulnerable in society when they can’t protect themselves.
“While I do understand some people want to have that choice, I think the pressure it puts on the rest of society and people who are nearing the end of life or feeling like a burden, it can be terrible.”
She added: “I don’t want to maintain the status quo whatsoever, there is a real shortage in social care, there is a real shortage in palliative care and good end-of-life care for people.”
Speaking after the Bill was defeated on Tuesday a Scottish Government spokesperson stressed ministers are “committed to ensuring that everyone in Scotland who needs it can access well-co-ordinated, compassionate and high-quality palliative and end-of-life care”.
