Scotland’s parliament voted 69 to 57 to reject Liam McArthur’s assisted suicide bill. This is a great victory after the same bill was passed at second reading, in May 2025, by a vote of 70 to 56.
The defeat of Scotland’s assisted suicide bill follows the death of the England / Wales Kim Leadbeater assisted suicide bill that has essentially died in the British House of Lords.
Megan Bonar reported for BBC Scotland that Dr Gordon Macdonald, CEO of Care Not Killing, expressed relief.
“Vulnerable people who are sick, elderly or disabled, can so easily feel pressure, whether real or imagined, to end their lives so as not to be a burden on others.
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“Parliament’s first responsibility is to protect its most vulnerable citizens from exploitation and abuse by those who may have a financial or emotional interest in their deaths.”
Angus Cochrane reported for BBC that:
Independent MSP Jeremy Balfour – born with no left arm and a right arm that ends at the elbow – said disabled people were “terrified” of assisted dying legislation.
He warned the bill would open “a pandora’s box” and said there could be “no meaningful protection” against coercion.
“I’m begging you to consider the consequences for the most vulnerable,” Balfour said.
Labour’s Pam Duncan-Glancy, who uses a wheelchair, urged MSPs to “choose to make it easier to live than to die”.
Others raised questions about protections for medics who did not want to participate in assisted dying, and a lack of oversight on doctors who would sign off on the process.
Critics also argued the focus should be on improving palliative care.
The SNP’s Ruth Maguire, while also citing concerns about the cost of the proposals, said: “It’s not a free choice if you do not have access to good palliative care.”
Most medical associations and medical professionals opposed the assisted suicide bill especially after McArthur was forced to acknowledge that Scotland’s parliament did not have the legislative right to ensure conscience rights for medical professionals.
Scottish legislators also faced significant pressure in dealing with the reality of Canada’s expanive euthanasia law. Last week Russell Findlay, the leader of Scotland’s Conservative party switched his position on the assisted suicide bill and stated:
The second concern relates to the possibility that any legislation, no matter how tightly defined, could be potentially widened by way of later court challenges.
It seems not plausible, but inevitable, that people whose conditions so not qualify for assisted dying as legislated for would take action to extend that right to them.
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 permaturely end their life.
Clearly Findlay was referring to Canada’s experience with euthanasia.
This is the third time that Scotland’s parliament defeated a bill to legalize assisted suicide. In 2010 Margo MacDonald’s assisted suicide bill was defeated by 85 to 16. Patrick Harvie took up the assisted suicide bill in 2014 with that bill being defeated by a vote of 82 to 36 in 2015.
The defeat of the McArthur assisted suicide bill is a great victory. The experience in all jurisdictions is that legalizing assisted suicide always results in an expansion of the law over time. Legalizing assisted killing for some situations will always expand to include more reasons to kill.
