The Scottish Government looks set to be given powers to authorise the use of death drugs and other substances for assisted suicide, should the legislation at Holyrood be approved.
The draft statutory instrument, published yesterday, has caused alarm among campaigners, who accuse Labour Ministers of interfering in Scottish affairs and trying to bury bad news by publishing the legislative device on the last day of Parliament before Christmas.
Pro-life campaign group, SPUC, denounced the decision to sneak out the Statutory Instrument on the day that “MPs return home to their constituencies” as yet more evidence that Keir Starmer’s Government is not neutral on the issue of assisted suicide, referencing leaked internal Labour Party documentation that showed the Prime Minister had secretly plotted to introduce a form of assisted suicide if elected.
A document, seen by the Guardian newspaper, said that Sir Keir’s proposed assisted suicide law was “strikingly similar” to the private member’s bill put forward by Kim Leadbeater, which would initially limit assisted suicide to those who are “mentally competent, terminally ill and have a prognosis of less than six months left to live”.
Michael Robinson, Executive Director of SPUC, commented: “Ordinary people will be alarmed that such an important piece of legislation, the power to decide if death row drugs or other substances can be used to kill people, should the assisted suicide bills become law in Scotland, is being sneaked out just before Christmas, when most MPs have returned to their constituencies. This appears to be a blatant attempt to avoid scrutiny. The drugs most commonly used to kill people are highly controversial and far from the quick, peaceful end supporters of the bill claim. In reality, they cause death through pulmonary oedema – a process that can be extremely painful, and take days.”
A pulmonary oedema is where a person’s lungs fill up with liquid, their own secretions and they drown.
Professor Joel Zivot, the celebrated anti-death penalty campaigner, has strongly criticised the use of death row drugs after he reviewed autopsies of those executed on death row, which used the two most widely used assisted suicide drugs. His evidence, that has been sent to both the UK and Scottish parliaments, concluded claims that somehow using these drugs leads to a quick and painless death was for the birds. He went on to point out that prisoners in Tennessee, even when sedated before the lethal cocktail of drugs was administered, still had to have their hands and fingers strapped down to prevent movement as the body instinctively fights the sensation of drowning.
Additionally, there is considerable evidence from the US State of Oregon, the model for the legislation in both UK parliaments, that the death drugs are not quick. Figures from 2023 of those whose death was witnessed, reported difficulty ingesting the drugs, regurgitation and even seizures. While time taken to die ranged from 3 minutes to 137 hours, or more than five and a half days.
This is why some assisted suicide advocates support the use of other substances such as nitrogen gas as an alternative. Indeed, Philipp Nitschke, the leading pro-killing campaigner, has developed a personal gas chamber called the Sarco Pod, that he would like to bring to the UK if assisted suicide is legalised.
Mr Robinson concluded: “It is chilling that given the implications of legalising assisted suicide and the concern expressed by many major doctors’ groups at the current legislation, the Westminster Government would try to bury the release of this statutory instrument that seeks to put the responsibility for deciding what drugs and other substances can be used to kill people on to the Scottish Ministers. Was this power requested by Holyrood, or is this a case of more pro-legalising interference by Sir Keir and his officials? We call on the Government to publish in full all documentation relating to this statutory instrument, including all correspondence between Ministers and officials in London and Edinburgh. The public have a right to know and MPs and peers have a right to scrutinise the decision to press ahead with this change.”
Notes to Editors
SPUC is a grassroots campaigning organisation, that defends the right to life from the moment of conception until natural death.
They do this by spreading their message far and wide right across the UK – educating, inspiring and empowering people to get involved so that we can achieve real change.
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