Crucial Votes on Assisted Dying and Abortion
 

Scotland Rejects Assisted Dying 

Plans to legalise assisted dying in Scotland were narrowly rejected in a vote in Scottish parliament on Tuesday evening.

MSPs voted by 69 to 57 to throw out the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, with one abstention, after several who previously supported it switched sides. They were given a free vote on the Bill, meaning they could act in line with their consciences and were not ‘whipped’ by their parties.

The Bill, tabled by Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur, would have given mentally competent people over 18 who have been diagnosed with a terminal condition the right to end their life. Safeguards included independent assessments by two doctors and a 14-day cooling-off period. Only those who could “reasonably be expected to die within six months” would have been eligible. To try and prevent assisted death “tourism”, there was also a requirement to have lived in Scotland for at least a year.

Liam McArthur had claimed that the vast majority of the Scottish population were in favour of assisted dying, according to polls. He tried to win over waverers by claiming the legislation was “bulletproof” after MSPs passed dozens of amendments to bolster safeguards against the system being abused. But opponents remained concerned that vulnerable people could be coerced into ending their own lives, especially if they thought they were a burden on their families.

Further concern was raised after a section was removed from the Bill that included “vital protections” for medical workers who did not want to participate in an assisted death. The Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland and Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland withdrew support owing to this removal.

Many people worked tirelessly to ensure that legislators understood the dangers of the proposal. Constituents contacted their representatives. Medical bodies and disability groups warned about the risks to vulnerable people. Church leaders from a range of traditions – including the Church of Scotland, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Free Church of Scotland – publicly appealed to MSPs to reject the bill.

MPs in Westminster passed the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in June, but it is being held up in the Lords. 

The Decriminalising of Abortion Vote

Meanwhile, an equally crucial vote will take place in the House of Lords this evening (Wednesday 18th March) on Baroness Rosa Monckton’s amendment to remove clause 208 of the Crime and Policing Bill, which would decriminalise abortion at any stage in pregnancy.

In the biggest shake-up to abortion in half a century, MPs last year voted to decriminalise abortion ‘up to birth’, leaving women free to abort their baby for any reason – including if the are not satisfied with the baby’s sex.

This evening, concerned members of the House of Lords will attempt to vote down the bill, which some Lords have blasted as ‘reckless and radical.’

When it was first reported last year that abortion was being ‘decriminalised’, many people, aware that abortion had been decriminalised for nearly 60 years, were under the belief that the proposed change in law was just tidying up some anomaly. As such, it slipped through the House of Commons as part of the Crime and Policing Bill, with only 46 minutes of debate, passing with 379n MPs voting in favour and 137 against.

This is despite the public being staunchly against aborting pregnancies at any point up to birth – with 91% of those polled voicing disagreement when surveyed by The Telegraph.