Scrutiny of assisted suicide bill to begin

A HOLYROOD committee set up to examine the case for legalising assisted suicide is meeting for the first time next week.

Liberal Democrat MSP Ross Finnie is expected to be sworn in as the convener of The End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill committee on Tuesday.

Members will scrutinise the merits of introducing new legislation at the behest of independent MSP Margo MacDonald, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease.

The right-to-die campaigner, who wants Scotland to be the first part of Britain to change the law which currently leaves people open to prosecution for culpable homicide, is unhappy the bill is not being scrutinised by Holyrood’s health committee.

She claimed the decision “demoted” its standing and parliament’s trust in members’ professionalism and probity. Two of its members, SNP MSP Ian McKee and Labour MSP Richard Simpson are former GPs.

Health committee convener Christine Grahame, a SNP MSP, was also furious with the parliament business bureau’s decision to recommend a new committee be established and tried to block the move.

Ms MacDonald says her bill is trying to give people the autonomy to exercise some control over how they die and the legal right to seek help and to protect the people that give assistance.

John Deighan, parliamentary officer for the Catholic Church’s Glasgow archdiocese, said the move is being promoted as something which is “cheaper than care”.

Ms MacDonald, a Lothians MSP, described his remarks as “wicked” because cost had nothing to do with what she is trying to achieve.