Scotland urged to follow Germany in rejecting assisted suicide proposals
MSPs are being urged to follow Germany's example and vote down assisted suicide proposals when they come before Holyrood.
The call from the Care Not Killing coalition follows the defeat in the German Bundestag last week of two separate assisted suicide schemes.
Attempts were made to legalise assisted suicide in Germany after the country's Constitutional Court overturned a ban on organised assisted suicide in 2020. The court ruled that the ban violated the right of individuals to die on their own terms, however, there is still no legal framework for assisted suicide.
The Scottish Parliament is expected to debate the issue later this year when Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur introduces his assisted dying Bill.
Dr Gordon Macdonald, chief executive of Care Not Killing, is urging MSPs to look at countries like Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada where the practice is already legal and where there has been an expansion of acceptable criteria.
"We welcome this decision by the German Parliament," said Dr Macdonald.
"Assisted dying puts many vulnerable people at risk of abuse and coercion. Once eugenics gets accepted in medicine, people will be killed against their will by doctors who make subjective quality of life judgements about other people.
"We are seeing that happen today in countries like Belgium, the Netherlands and Canada. People are being pressured into euthanasia because of lack of access to social care or the cost of healthcare.
"Many people are having their lives ended without their consent being obtained. Children who can't give informed consent have their lives ended by doctors in Belgium. In the Netherlands doctors even euthanise disabled infants with spinal bifida. Once assisted dying is legalised, many abuses occur and so-called safeguards are eroded, removed or ignored.
"Scottish politicians must copy their German counterparts and reject this dangerous proposal in order to protect the most vulnerable. We can do much better in Scotland and should be properly funding palliative care rather than legalising assisted dying."
