A new bill could legalise assisted dying in Scotland

In 2009, my old friend from medical school, Ann McPherson, wrote a powerful personal view in The BMJ in support of assisted dying when she herself was dying of pancreatic cancer.1 Despite receiving the best palliative care that Oxford could offer, this well respected GP had a horrible and lingering death, later described in another personal view by her daughter Tess, a consultant dermatologist, who despaired that: “It is an honour to care for someone you love, but it no longer felt honourable to try to care for someone who wanted to be dead.”2In Scotland, unlike in the rest of the UK, it is not a specific criminal offence to help someone to end their own life. However, there is still a risk of prosecution for murder, culpable homicide, assault, and breach of the peace. As a result, any attempts to help a person die are necessarily covert, completely unrecorded,…
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