MacDonald remains optimistic over assisted suicide Bill

An article that was published in the Scotsman.com and written by Christopher Mackie indicates that Margo MacDonald is optimistic that she will get her bill through the Scottish parliament that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The first thing is that the media keep on suggesting that the bill legalizes assisted suicide. Anyone who reads the bill will quickly notice that the bill legalizes euthanasia and assisted suicide and it is not limited to people who are terminally ill, but rather it extends to people with disabilities and people living with chronic conditions.

Secondly, very few people strongly support euthanasia and assisted suicide. People who live in Ivory Towers discuss these issues, but most people, and parliamentarians, do not consider these issues to be worth supporting. The media, including the Scotsman.com are really working overtime to create support for the bill, where it otherwise would not exist.

The prime example was the article from Friday that emphasized Catholic opposition to the bill. If you didn't read the article, but only saw the headline, you would think that the Catholic Church was the only group to oppose the bill, and you may even think that there is a Catholic conspiracy to control the Scottish parliament.

The Catholic Church should oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide because these are acts that threaten the lives of the most vulnerable in society. The way that MacDonald has written the bill specifically focuses on people with disabilities. If I were a Scottish disability advocate I would be asking the question, when did society start promoting that my life is not worth living?

My final comment is to MacDonald herself. If you want to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide, why can't you simply write a bill that is honest and straight-forward about your intentions. Instead you decided to attempt to create new terminology - "end of life assistance" that is fuzzy enough that a person would be forced to actually read the bill to know what it is actually about.

If there is nothing wrong with euthanasia and assisted suicide, why can't you just say, I am trying to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide. Is it because very few people strongly support the concept so that by couching the terms you can gain some more support?

Anyway, you can link to the article in the Scotsman.com at: http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/MacDonald-remains-optimistic-over-assisted.6009600.jp