With the announcement, that Ms. Margo MacDonald MSP has obtained a sufficient number of backers for a debate on assisted dying in the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics (SCHB) indicated that most doctors were not ready to support assisted suicide. Indeed, in a study published in March 2009, only 35 per cent of doctors believed that they should be allowed to help their patients die.
The SCHB also recognises that crossing the boundary between acknowledging that death is inevitable and taking active steps to bring about death changes fundamentally the role of the physician, changes the doctor-patient relationship and changes the role of medicine in society.
In this regard, Dr. Calum MacKellar, Director of Research of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics indicated that "Doctors are generally opposed to assisted dying because they know that it is unnecessary since physical suffering can be adequately alleviated in all but the most rare cases by appropriate palliative care. And even in the very exceptional cases where physical suffering does not fully respond to treatment there is the possibility of using artificial transient or (very occasionally) total permanent sedation in patients to keep them asleep in order to address physical and/or mental distress."
The SCHB also emphasised that vulnerable people need to hear that they are valued and unconditionally accepted by the community. They need to know that society is committed first and foremost to their well-being, even if this does involve expenditure of time, effort and money.
In this regard, Dr. MacKellar indicated that "If Scottish society accepts to legalise assisted dying it would mean that it agrees that some lives no longer have any meaning, value or worth".
He also said that: "Legalising assisted suicide would mean that Scottish society would share the responsibility for the suicide of a person."
The Scottish Council on Human Bioethics was formed in 1997 as an independent, non-partisan, non-religious council composed of physicians, lawyers, ethicists and other professionals from disciplines associated with medical ethics. The principles to which the SCHB subscribes are set out in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted and proclaimed by the UN General Assembly by resolution 217A (III) on 10 December 1948.
Source
Scottish Council on Human Bioethics
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