Euthanasia: too easy for people to view death as a solution

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, a member of the UK House of Lords and a Professor in palliative care, warned Scotland's government that: 'online content is promoting a “culture of death”'. Llandaff warned Scotland's government that legalizing assisted death could “gradually get eroded”, leading to “almost death in demand”.

Sophie Villegas reported for Holyrood on November 29 Baroness Finlay commenting on Canada's experience with euthanasia:

“It becomes too easy for people to view death as a solution. It's been estimated that it's about 60 hours of clinical time to really process a request properly. Well, I would prefer that you spend 60 hours of clinical time improving people's quality of life… We need to be saying that people's lives are important. We need to help them live as well as possible for as long as possible,” she added.

“It would be wonderful if every doctor, every nurse, was well-motivated. But goodness me, we have seen disasters in this country of people abusing their position, to say the least, and almost clocking into a culture of death, which is dangerous."

Scotland is once again debating the legalization of euthanasia and assisted suicide. The text of legislation has not yet been released. Scotland's parliament last voted on the issue in 2022.