Meeting of the Parliament 10 March 2026 [Draft]
Colleagues who have heard my arguments throughout the bill’s progress will know that, despite wishing that I could feel comfortable with the proposal and knowing that there are many situations in which I would want people to have the choice, my concerns about health inequalities, societal pressure and expectations on disabled people have led me to conclude that I cannot support it. I am concerned that it would remove more choice than it would offer.
I associate myself with comments made by Pam Duncan-Glancy and Jeremy Balfour about the pervasive negative attitudes that exist towards disabled people. I do not think that folk realise how common it is for someone regularly to hear everything from, “How do you cope?” to “I would have killed myself,” when they lead a life that some people will readily describe as undignified.
My amendment 140 seeks to introduce additional safeguards for people with learning disabilities. That is not in any way intended to prevent a person with such a disability from accessing assisted dying if it were available in Scotland. I want to be very clear that I have no wish—and would not support efforts—to remove autonomy from that community, or any group, based on diagnosis.
My concerns stem from the way in which people with learning disabilities are often treated. The lessons that I have learned from those with lived experience have involved terrifying descriptions of individual rights and freedoms being belittled, ignored or even overridden during the Covid pandemic. We must legislate with the worst-case scenarios in mind. Should there be another pandemic at a time when assisted dying was legal, nobody should be in any doubt that people who were at risk back in 2020 would still be at risk then. In that case, the result could be pressure to end their lives early if we do not bake in protections now.
Amendment 140 would require that time be taken to ensure that an individual—not just their carers, advisers and family—fully understands what they are signing up to and that they have all the multidisciplinary support that can be offered ahead of their taking such an important decision.