Assisted dying Bill ‘devalues human life', says top Bishop
John Keenan, the Bishop of Paisley and the President of the Bishops' Conference of Scotland, expressed his 'sadness' that MSPs backed the general principles of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill.
Proposed by Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur, the Bill will go forward for further scrutiny in the Scottish Parliament.
But Bishop Keenan equated assisted dying to suicide, claiming the law would normalise the idea of someone taking their own life, as he urged politicians to focus on caring for people to live.
Mr McArthur said equating assisted dying and suicide was 'regrettable'.
'It is hard to believe that any parliamentarian could support what will effectively be the creation of a state suicide service,' the Bishop said.
'Politicians should be working hard to provide the support necessary for people to live, not give them a lethal concoction of drugs to die.
'At a time when suicide is on the rise in Scotland and we are doing our best to reduce it, what message are we sending when we say that suicide is the right choice provided it is overseen by a doctor?
'Laws like this normalise suicide and, with it, the false idea that some people's lives are beyond hope.
'This dangerous legislation devalues human life and puts our most vulnerable brothers and sisters under terrible pressure to take their lives prematurely.
'When vulnerable people, including the elderly and disabled, express concerns about being a burden, the appropriate response is not to suggest that they have a duty to die.
'Rather, it is to commit ourselves to meeting their needs and providing the care and compassion they need to help them live.
'I urge every MSP to consider the great dangers inherent in assisted suicide legislation and to focus their energies on ensuring we provide better palliative care, giving everyone access to modern pain relief and the highest quality of care.'
This is a watershed moment for compassion. MSPs have today taken a historic step towards greater choice and protection for dying people. #ScotsForDignityhttps://t.co/1XNsNNwX5T
— Dignity in Dying (@dignityindying) May 13, 2025
Mr McArthur, who is the third MSP in Holyrood's history to table a Bill on assisted dying, said he understood there would always be opposition to the legislation.
'This is about putting in place more choice, it's not about any obligation,' he told BBC Radio Scotland.
'Indeed, for medical practitioners, I think there needs to be a robust conscientious objection to ensure that their choices are respected.'
He added: 'But I think referring to suicide is regrettable.
'I know a number of mental health charities, for example in Australia, have reflected that the mindset of an individual considering suicide could not be more different than the mindset of somebody faced with a terminal diagnosis, who's desperate to live, desperate to get the most out of the life that they have left.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scottish Sun
38 minutes ago
- Scottish Sun
Nigel Farage U-turns on plan to scrap all MSPs and put Scottish MPs in Holyrood instead
The Reform UK leader once wanted a watered down parly when he bossed the Ukip party U-TURN Nigel Farage U-turns on plan to scrap all MSPs and put Scottish MPs in Holyrood instead Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) NIGEL Farage has U-turned on a plan to scrap all MSPs and put Scottish MPs in Holyrood instead. The Reform UK leader wanted a watered down parly when he bossed the Ukip party — but now concedes 'devolution is here to stay'. 1 Nigel Farage says devolution is here to stay Credit: Getty But he told The Scottish Sun: 'I don't think you can turn the clock back. We're not going to reverse devolution.' Mr Farage previously wanted to axe our parliament as we know it and put Scotland's Westminster politicians in there when they decide on Scottish-only matters. Reform surged to third in last week's Hamilton by-election — fewer than 1,500 votes behind winners Labour. Farage — bookies' favourite to be the next PM — hit out at 'excesses of the Scottish Parliament' such as whopping construction costs and 'the fact that it's really failed quite badly to deliver on some of its key objectives — education in particular, and health'. He said: 'The job now is to make sure it's done better.' Reform grabbed 26.1 per cent of the vote last week, the SNP 29.4 per cent and Labour 31.6 per cent. Farage's party is tipped to grab at least a dozen MSPs at the 2026 election — but has been criticised for a lack of devolved policies. Asked how his party would spend £10billion if they had power in Scotland, Mr Farage said: 'What about creating money? What about creating wealth and jobs? What about upping the average income of people living in Scotland? That's my priority.' Reform has published a one-page, 200-word 'position paper' which states: 'We have a vision where personal liberty and free speech are respected and promoted, support is available when needed, but life is largely untrammelled by government interference.' It also plugs 'traditional Scottish values' like 'integrity, thrift, hard work and tolerance'. Dark curse ravaging 'UK's best high street' On independence, it says Scotland should stay as a 'full and respected member of the UK
The National
an hour ago
- The National
Farage's proposal is just the latest undermining of the Barnett system
This, according to senior criminologists and ex-police officers, is not just a failure of admin, it's the result of austerity-era cuts that stripped police forces of capacity, dismantled the state-run Forensic Science Service in 2012, and left fragmented, underfunded systems to cope with ballooning evidence demands. Austerity didn't just weaken institutions; it disassembled infrastructure. READ MORE: Nigel Farage could cut the Barnett Formula. Here's what devolution experts think of that While these failings may seem like an English and Welsh concern, they tell a broader UK-wide story. Because when public services are cut in England, the Barnett formula translates those cuts into reduced budget allocations for Holyrood, too. Scotland has long borne the dual burden of being denied full fiscal autonomy while also seeing its devolved budget squeezed by decisions made for entirely different priorities south of the Border. Cuts to police, criminal courts, housing, public health, and local government in England have systematically eroded the spending floor on which Scottish services rest. So when justice collapses in England, it affects Scotland financially – even if the governance is separate. And now, against this backdrop of UK-wide budgetary degradation, Nigel Farage has called for the scrapping of the Barnett formula entirely. It's a move that's politically convenient, historically illiterate, and economically reckless. But more than anything, it's a distillation of what's already happening by stealth. Successive UK governments have undermined the foundations of the Barnett system – and devolution itself – for more than a decade. READ MORE: Furious Anas Sarwar clashes with BBC journalist over Labour policies It's obvious to every Scot that Farage's view relies on a mischaracterisation of Barnett as a subsidy, when in fact it simply ensures Scotland receives a proportional share of changes to spending in England for devolved services. It doesn't calculate entitlement or need, it mirrors policy shifts at Westminster. If England increases education or health spending, Scotland sees a relative uplift. If England cuts deeply, Scotland's budget falls, even if demand remains or rises. This has led to an absurd and punitive dynamic where Scotland loses funding not by its own decisions, but because England spends less. And when Scotland chooses to maintain higher standards in public services, it must do so from a proportionately smaller pot. Perversely, it doesn't stop there, though. Since the 2016 Brexit vote, Westminster has begun bypassing devolved governments directly. Funds like the Levelling Up Fund and Shared Prosperity Fund are allocated by UK ministers to local authorities, often bypassing Holyrood entirely. Promises made in The Vow on the eve of the 2014 independence referendum to deliver near-federal powers and respect Scottish decision-making have unravelled. READ MORE: SNP must turn support for independence into 'real political action' The Internal Market Act has overridden devolved laws under the banner of market 'consistency'. Powers that returned from Brussels in areas like food standards, procurement, and agriculture were supposed to go to Holyrood, but in many cases they were retained by Westminster. The Sewel Convention, once a safeguard of devolved consent, has been treated as optional. Farage's proposal to scrap Barnett isn't an outlier, it's the natural conclusion of a decade-long pattern: cut services in England, shrink the Barnett allocation, bypass devolved institutions, and then blame the devolved nations for 'taking more than their share'. There's no consideration of fairness, or implementation of a needs-based analysis, it's a strategy of erosion; one that gouges out the Union from the centre while draping itself in the flag. The failures of justice in England, catastrophic as they are, expose a deeper injustice: the systematic unravelling of the constitutional promises made to Scotland. Ron Lumiere via email
South Wales Guardian
2 hours ago
- South Wales Guardian
Swinney – Reform voters in Hamilton by-election ‘angry', not racist
The First Minister was asked on the BBC Scotland's Sunday Show if those who backed Reform were 'gullible' or 'racist' – a term the SNP leader has previously used to describe the party. Mr Swinney said the 7,088 people who backed Reform – more than a quarter of the vote – in the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse ballot were 'neither', but were instead 'angry at the cost-of-living crisis'. He added: 'I think that's what motivates the Reform vote. People have got poorer because of one central thing – Brexit, and the author of that is (Reform UK leader Nigel) Farage. 'I'm standing up to Farage. I'm going to make no apology for it.' He said the SNP is 'in the process of recovery' and he had come into office as First Minister a year ago 'inheriting some significant difficulties' within the party, and that it needs to get stronger before the Holyrood election in 2026. He said voters are 'having to work hard for less' and are concerned about public services, particularly the NHS. Mr Swinney was asked about comments he made prior to the vote saying 'Labour were not at the races' and claiming it was a 'two-horse race' between the SNP and Reform. Labour's Davy Russell gained the seat from the SNP with 8,559 votes, while SNP candidate Katy Loudon came second on 7,957, ahead of Reform's Ross Lambie. The First Minister said that since the general election campaign last year, people he has met have pledged never to vote Labour due to the winter fuel allowance being cut, while Reform's support increased. Mr Swinney said: 'People were telling us on the doorsteps, they were giving us reasons why they weren't supporting Labour. We could also see that Farage's support was rising dramatically and that's happening across the United Kingdom, it's not unique to Hamilton. 'I positioned the SNP to be strong enough to stop Farage, and that's what we were determined to do.' Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has branded the SNP's campaign 'dishonest and disgraceful' and said it had put the spotlight on Reform. Those comments were put to the First Minister, who said he had previously been allies with Mr Sarwar in a campaign to 'stand up to far-right thinking'. Mr Swinney said: 'That was months ago and then we found ourselves in the aftermath of the UK local authority elections, the English local authority elections where Farage surged to a leading position and won a by-election south of the border. 'So the dynamic of our politics change in front of us. 'I've been standing up to Farage for months, I've been warning about the dangers of Farage for months, and they crystallised in the rise of Farage during the Hamilton, Stonehouse and Larkhall by-election.'
