Scotland’s assisted suicide bill passes first vote in parliament after intense debate

A bill to legalize assisted suicide in Scotland has cleared the first hurdle in an initial vote at Holyrood, the country’s parliament. The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, which passed by a margin of 70 votes to 56, has been affirmed “in principle,” and will face two more parliamentary hurdles before becoming law.

The parliamentary debate was intense and emotional. Using the now-familiar rhetoric, advocates of assisted suicide insisted that legalization is necessary to end the suffering of the dying, with one MSP citing her mother’s death from cancer as her motive for voting in favor. Ally Thomson, the director of Dignity in Dying Scotland, claimed the vote in favor of doctor-administered lethal injections was “a watershed for compassion.”

Sadly, those with disabilities once again found their voices ignored by the majority. In Canada, disability rights groups have been utterly unheeded by the government, even after the U.N. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities condemned the regime. Every disability rights group in the U.K. has condemned Leadbeater’s assisted suicide bill; MPs rejected virtually all safeguards for those with disabilities.

A similar scene unfolded in Scotland. Labour MSP Pam Ducan-Glancy, the first permanent wheelchair user to be elected to Holyrood, told BBC Scotland News that she was “deeply worried” that the bill would put disabled people at risk,” and that this was the first step to making it “easier to help to die than help to live.” The bill, she said, could “legitimize a view that a life like ours, one of dependence and often pain, is not worth living.” The vote, in short, left her “heartbroken.” Her fears did not dent the celebration of assisted suicide supporters.