Assisted dying invoice defeat will not cease change in England, campaigners vow
On Tuesday night Scottish parliament voted agains the assisted dying bill. But campaigners across the border insist it won’t stop change in England.
Protesters gather during a demonstration organised by Dignity in Dying Scotland. (Image: Getty Images)
The defeat of the assisted dying bill in Scotland will not stop a law change in England, campaigners insist.
On Tuesday evening the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill was defeated in the Scottish Parliament after emotional scenes.
MSPs described the “grotesque” deaths some terminally ill people have faced.
If it had been passed the bill would have made Scotland the first nation in the UK to legalise assisted dying.
The defeat comes at the same time as a similar Bill before Westminster is stalled in the House of Lords who have suggested 1,200 amendments to it.
The delays mean it is ‘unlikely’ there is time for it to pass in this current session. But campaigners said they are hopeful Parliament, which passed the bill last June, will find a way to ‘resurrect it’ in its next session.
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Lord Falconer and Kim Leadbeater MP, the sponsors of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, have said the Parliament Act can be used to bypass the Lords and enact the Bill.
Humanists UK and My Death, My Decision “welcome this” and say they “hope it encourages the House of Lords to stop filibustering, scrutinise the Bill, and respect the democratic will of the Commons.”
Widow Louise Shackleton, who travelled to Dignitas with her late husband Antony in December 2024, told of her disappointment but feels it will not stop the law changing in England.
She said: “They failed to safeguard terminally ill people but it won’t stop England and Wales. The Lords tried to kill it but that bill can be resurrected!
“But I’ve seen such a lack of empathy for dying people during the debates both in England and Scotland.”
Supporters of assisted dying said the defeat of Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur’s Bill had only “strengthened” their desire for a change in the law.
Leighanne Baird-Sangster backed the legislation after watching both her wife Gill and her sister Victoria die from cancer.
She said she was “gutted” the Bill had been rejected by 57 votes to 69 in its final vote 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. When you have watched two people you love die from terminal cancer, you understand what this really means.”
Speaking about her wife, she added: “We always knew although she could choose her funeral music, she couldn’t choose that vital last moment.”
Mr McArthur said afterwards he was “obviously deeply disappointed” with the result, adding: “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.”
Peter Warren, the executive director of the World Federation Right to Die Societies, told The Mirror after the defeat: “Today, the truly vulnerable people in Scotland who are living with a terminal diagnosis have woken up facing the same reality as they did yesterday.
“Many of whom will be considering ways in which they might end their lives that are truly horrific.
“During the course of the debate it became very clear that there was a well organised campaign, and funded campaign, driven by various radical faith groups with limited public appeal.
“This has skewered the debate and they have succeeded in making certain vulnerable groups, such as the disabled feel that they might have to live in fear if the bill passed. Scotland can do better.”
Former prime minister Gordon Brown says there is a “moral obligation” to make “urgently needed improvements” to end-of-life care across the UK.
He called on the four governments in the UK to co-operate in a bid to ensure dying people can be “guaranteed the most compassionate and highest quality of care” regardless of where they live.
The former prime minister said: “We now have a moral obligation to move quickly to make the urgently needed improvements in end-of-life care and to end the UK-wide postcode lottery which means high levels of care in hospices and in the community in some areas but not in others.
“Because inadequate provision is a problem across the whole of the United Kingdom, it is time for co-operation between all the different governments of the UK so that men and women at the end of their lives in every part of the country can now be promised and guaranteed the most compassionate and highest quality of care.
“We owe it as a moral duty to all those people who fear they may experience avoidable pain and suffering in the last days of their lives.”
Opponents of assisted dying hailed the result of Tuesday’s Holyrood vote as a “victory for the vulnerable”. They raised several concerns about the bill – particularly fears of people being coerced into an assisted death.
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.”
Independent MSP Jeremy Balfour – born with no left arm and a right arm that ends at the elbow – said disabled people were “terrified” of assisted dying legislation.
He warned the bill would open “a pandora’s box” and said there could be “no meaningful protection” against coercion.
