36 per cent of over-50s Scots believe they are seen as a “burden” by others, a “shocking” poll has revealed, following another attempt to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland, a bill slammed by SPUC as “dangerous” and “irresponsible”.
Surveying 3,500 over-50s in Scotland, an Age Scotland poll also found that 51 per cent of respondents felt under-valued.
The results have been described as “heartbreaking” by Age Scotland’s chief executive, Brian Sloan.
The 2021 survey echoes another disturbing poll in 2019, published last year, in which 34% of Canadians killed by assisted suicide said they feared being a burden on family and carers, as reported by SPUC.
Since 2016, when assisted suicide was legalised in Canada, 13,946 Canadians have lost their lives.
In the U.S. state of Oregon, as many as 54.2% of people killed by assisted suicide said that one reason to end their lives was not wanting to be a burden on family, friends and caregivers.
SPUC comment
A SPUC spokesperson said: “These shocking but not unsurprising findings ought to shake all Scots, especially now that Scotland is in danger of exposing its aging population to assisted suicide.
“As surveys have shown, repeatedly, wherever assisted suicide is legal, the vulnerable feel compelled to take their own lives, not for their own sake, but because they fear being a ‘burden’ to others.
“To place the elderly and other persons in such an intolerable position is, quite frankly, a disgrace.
“The Scottish Assisted Suicide Bill consultation, sponsored by Liam McArthur MSP, seeking to redefine “how we die”, is ongoing and will end on 22 December.
“SPUC urges Scots to recognise that, if this dangerous bill is passed, many vulnerable Scots, not wishing to be a ‘burden’, will feel pressured into taking their own lives.
“We cannot allow this to happen.”
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