Last week's defeat of assisted suicide in the Scottish Parliament has raised hopes that the deeply flawed bill currently grinding through the House of Lords will also be defeated.
This is all the more likely given the dozens of major medical bodies and organisations representing the most vulnerable in Scottish society also came out in opposition to the Bill.
This included the Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland, the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, the Association of Palliative Medicine, Social Work Scotland, the Association of Palliative Care Social Workers, the Scottish Association of Social Work, and the British Islamic Medical Association.
They were joined by groups representing tens of thousands of people in Scotland including, a coalition of major disability groups, such as Inclusion Scotland, Disability Equality Scotland, Glasgow Centre for Inclusive Living, Glasgow Disability Alliance, Our Duty of Care, People First, Self Directed Support Scotland, Disabled People Against Cuts, Group for Autism, Insurance, Investment and Neurodiversity, LegaCare, We Thrive and Down’s Syndrome Research Foundation, who all came out in opposition to the Bill.
Alisdair Hungerford-Morgan, Chief Executive of Right To Life UK, said “This is a great victory for the most vulnerable in our society. They deserve protection and care, not a pathway to suicide. If this legislation had passed, countless vulnerable people would have been pressured or coerced into ending their lives”.
“A large number of MSPs from across the political spectrum came together to recognise the dangers this Bill posed and have rightly rejected it”.
“The question of assisted suicide has dominated the five-year term of the current Scottish Parliament. The issue is now settled for a generation”.