Meeting of the Parliament 11 March 2026 [Draft]
Here we go again.
The concern that I am trying to address with my amendments in this group is about the protection of patients and their wishes and the protection of healthcare professionals. My amendment 149 seeks to provide clarity on a patient’s decision to family members and friends, because the patient’s wishes are paramount in such situations. Amendments 149 and 303 seek to make provision for the Scottish Government to bring forward a template advance care directive that expresses the patient’s wishes for end-of-life treatment when they are accessing assisted dying. I stress that it would be optional to use the full template or some of the template or to decline to use it at all. The advance care directive could not be used to choose assisted dying in the event of incapacity.
Amendment 159 would create an obligation for medical practitioners to discuss the advance care directive with the terminally ill adult. In response to stage 2 feedback, I have removed the legal requirement for an advance care directive to be completed. A terminally ill adult would have the option of using the template that the Government produced, filling in as little or as much of it as they wanted. A discussion about advance care directives would still be mandatory, so that patients would be aware of all their options.
Overall, this set of amendments would help to avoid doubt about patient intention and would provide clarity to patients, healthcare professionals and loved ones. I have looked at research across the UK and at international examples of what should be included. It is standard elsewhere, and using the bill as a way to introduce the practice would give us a clear way to evaluate how it can work. The advance care directive makes clear the patient’s wishes around specific items of care that may prolong their life if they become incapacitated and cannot continue with the assisted dying process, become incapacitated due to the effects of the substance, choose to cancel their declaration, or decide not to use the substance. Again, the advance care directive cannot be used to choose assisted dying in the event of incapacity.
The template requirement is to allow a standard format for the advance directive that fits the needs of healthcare professionals and makes information easy to locate when needed. Power is given to ministers to expand the scope beyond what is listed, if required, in consultation with health professionals. I recognise that the Law Society of Scotland feels that reform of advance care directives should occur more comprehensively. However, as the functions under the bill will be reviewed, this is an opportunity to test-pilot changes around advance care directives.
I move amendment 149.