Meeting of the Parliament 10 March 2026 [Draft]
I have many amendments in this group, but I want to focus on amendments 27, 160 and 33, because I do not wish to see those amendments lost in amongst the various other amendments in my name, which I will come to later.
Amendment 27 seeks to require an assessing doctor to inquire about and take account of indirect pressures and whether such pressures are unduly limiting someone’s ability to choose freely. Surely that is fundamental when it comes to striking a balance in assisted dying legislation, notwithstanding the challenges in doing so that Mr Marra outlined in his contribution.
We know that all sorts of factors might affect a person’s ability to decide freely to seek an assisted death. For example, they might feel a burden; there might be financial pressures; or there might be a major failure of service, be it in housing, social care or palliative care or, indeed, in other ways. All of those things can exert indirect pressures.
Palliative care practitioners in Scotland regularly support people expressing a wish to die due to indirect pressures, and those people often go on to enjoy valuable time when those pressures are explored, understood and addressed. Indeed, they will often say later that they are glad that they did not end their lives.
Currently, the bill does not suggest, or require, that the assessing doctor identify or consider such indirect pressures; instead, it focuses exclusively on coercion as something done by another person. I think that that is a weakness. I should also point out at this stage that I, like others, will not be supporting this bill at the end of the stage 3 process; however, I do think that I have a responsibility to strengthen the bill and make it as robust as possible, and my amendments have been cast in that light.
I suspect that many of us know from experience, whether from personal experience of family and friends or through our constituency casework, the impact of financial distress, the challenges that inadequate care packages place on a person or their family—I think that Pam Duncan-Glancy referred to that earlier—and the profound impact that lack of access to appropriate symptom management or palliative care can have on a person’s lived experience and the perception of their quality of life. I very much hope that MSPs will agree that it is reasonable for the registered medical practitioner to inquire into and take account of such indirect pressures. If they do, I ask them to please support amendment 27.