The effort to push state-sanctioned murder on Scotland is now in serious trouble. The whole plot now sits on a knife-edge. he Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party has dropped his support of the Scottish assisted suicide Bill, vowing that he will now vote against it as “the risks are too great”.
Russell Findlay MSP previously supported the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, which, as written, would legalise assisted suicide for adults resident in Scotland with no prognosis requirement specified; however, he now opposes the Bill due to numerous concerns with it.
This now means that the leaders of the three largest parties in Holyrood are opposed to the assisted suicide Bill.
Findlay is the third MSP who supported the Bill last year to now oppose it, meaning that if only four more MSPs change their minds and commit to voting against the Bill, it will fail.
Findlay said that he changed his mind about the Bill due to “numerous” concerns about the Bill that have not been addressed.
He stated that one of the key concerns he has with the Bill is “the real risk that people could be coerced into ending their own lives”.
“There are already cases in which unscrupulous relatives, or ‘trusted’ medical or legal professionals, exploit elderly people for financial gain”, he said, adding, “And even without any coercion from others, some elderly people may feel pressured to end their lives because they think they have become a ‘burden’ on loved ones”.
Findlay said that he was also concerned that it would be “inevitable” that the eligibility criteria for assisted suicide would expand following legal challenges.
“We have seen examples of this ‘slippery slope’ in other jurisdictions, and I would be deeply uncomfortable at being responsible for legislation that might end up mutating beyond its original remit to, for example, allowing someone with a mental health condition to compel the state to prematurely end their life”, he said.