scaring people to support assisted suicide is a desperate measure

‘Pro-suicide advocates’, Dignity in Dying Scotland, have made fresh demands, calling for the widespread introduction of assisted suicide as they allege 11 Scots a week can expect a ‘bad death.’

According to a new report produced by Dignity in Dying Scotland, 11 terminally ill Scots could "suffer intolerably" in their final weeks and months. As a result of these claims, the campaigning group has called for the legalisation of assisted suicide. Dignity in Dying Director, Ally Thompson, claimed that ‘11 Scots a week can expect a bad death.’

SPUC Scotland, Director of Communications, Michael Robinson said: "Scare-mongering is a tactic of assisted suicide advocates. Scotland like the rest of the UK should be continuing to pursue excellent health care for people at the end of their lives and must resist Dignity in Dying’s dangerous agenda. Scaring people to support suicide is a desperate measure with dire consequences as we have seen around the world. Suicide leads to worse conditions for patients and creates momentum for widening the categories of those who are made to feel they should choose to die. We need to ensure we do not become one of the countries where the weak, sick and elderly feel they have a duty to die. Palliative care is the answer to concerns about suffering, yet assisted suicide undermines palliative care by proposing a cheap alternative which undermines human dignity."

The concerted campaign to implement assisted suicide

Nick Boles MP, who in July brought forward a debate on assisted suicide in Westminster, eagerly wrote in support of the Dignity in Dying demands in an attempt to ‘further his pro-suicide agenda’ according to Director of SPUC’s Patient’s First Network, Antonia Tully.

In an open letter, Nick Boles has claimed how in failing to legalise assisted suicide for the British public, Parliament has "failed to do what legislatures in the United States, Canada and Australia have done."

"Assisted suicide is looming over our nation"

Ms Tully said: "Our current law protects every citizen, especially the elderly, sick and disabled. A change in law to legalise assisted suicide sends a lethal message; that the vulnerable are not worthy of life. The prospect of implementing a pro- suicide regime highlights that we have truly lost the meaning of what it is to care for one another."

"It is disturbing that Nick Boles has upheld nations such as the United States and Canada as models of inspiration regarding assisted suicide. These countries have witnessed some of the most distressing consequences of medically-assisted death. In Washington State, 56% of people who were killed by assisted suicide confirmed that their reason behind it was fear of being a burden on family, friends and caregivers. Similarly, a Canadian man only last month was killed by assisted suicide after authorities cut the funding to his in-home care. In the meantime the nation of Canada itself allows citizens to apply for assisted suicide if they suffer from a mental illness."

Ms Tully continued: "It is vital that we remain vigilant to the pressing issue of assisted suicide which is now, more than ever looming over Scotland and the rest of the UK. The slippery slope of assisted suicide is now on full display around the globe. It is crucial, for our collective protection that we resist its pressures to infiltrate the United Kingdom."