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End of Life
Review of the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill | Print |  Email

HSS member Innes McOwan brings us up to date on the bill and shows how we can lend our support.

Now that the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill has been published (January 2010) we can consider the proposed legislation in detail.

Fundamental Principles
By and large the Bill stays with the fundamental principles that underpinned the Consultation Paper (December 2008) wherein M/S MacDonald set out her intentions, viz –

  1. The Bill is based on total respect for the dignity and autonomy of the individual. The ultimate decision will remain with the individual, and the individual alone.
  2. The option of exercising the right to obtain assistance at the end of life will be strictly limited to specific categories of debility.
  3. The final act would be carried out in controlled circumstances.
  4. (It is not clear to me that the administration of the fatal dose would have to be administered by a Registered Medical Practitioner, although such a person would have to be present.)
  5. Provision is made to ensure that vulnerable people are fully protected.


Motivation
The overarching motivation behind the Bill is one of compassion. How can we allow people to die in a condition that they find intolerable through extreme pain or extreme debility, when we posses the means to ease that final passage? The reality is that many people recognize when their own end is approaching and they ready themselves for that eventuality.

 There is now an online petition in support of the bill: please click here to register your support!

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HSS Support for End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill | Print |  Email

The HSS now has a provisional and fairly detailed policy on end of life choices. These policy statements are based on propositions discussed at the Society’s Conference in November 2009 where they received strong support. One item has been dropped, not because it was rejected, but because it was a bit obscure and not easily understood. (The vice-convenor must have been having a bad day when he drafted the originals!) The policy is provisional until it is formally amended or adopted at the forthcoming AGM.
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End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill | Print |  Email

HSS member, Innes McOwan follows up on Margo MacDonald’s talk at Conference and finds out how we can help.

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Following her speech at our conference on 7th November, I met with Margo and her team at the Scottish Parliament. The objective was to establish how the HSS could help Margo to progress this Bill through Parliament.

There are three essential principals underpinning the Bill.

  1. The Bill is based on total respect for the dignity and autonomy of the individual. The ultimate decision will remain with the individual, and the individual alone.
  2. The right to exercise the choice will be strictly limited to specific categories of debility.
  3. The final act would be carried out by a trained Doctor and only then under strictly controlled conditions.

Be aware that the opponents of the Bill will be well organised to exercise maximum pressure to have the Bill defeated.

So, what can we do as individual members of the Society?
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