Patrick Harvie MSP, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, tells us about his long-standing support for end of life choice (Patrick wrote this article for us before a planned period of medical leave).
I was elected as Green MSP for Glasgow back in 2003. Even then there were debates in the Scottish parliament about assisted dying. Jeremy Purvis and Margo MacDonald both made major contributions to the issue. Margo’s work in particular brought the case for a change to the law to more people’s attention.
As Margo approached the end of her own life, she knew that she might not be able to see her bill though its parliamentary stages. She asked me to take on the role of steering it through if she couldn’t. Although that bill didn’t pass, the experience of working on it and hearing from the personal experiences of campaigners only strengthened my view that the current law must change. People’s choices about how to manage the end of life must be respected.
The experience of working on Margo MacDonald’s bill and hearing from the personal experiences of campaigners only strengthened my view that the current law must change.
There are, and perhaps always will be, some people who are fundamentally opposed to freedom of choice in this area. I think there are many more people who accept the principle but worry that some people would end up taking this option because better choices aren’t available, or even that some could be coerced. On the latter concern, if we think it’s important that people’s genuine wishes are respected – and I certainly think so – we should acknowledge that the current law doesn’t achieve this. In the few situations where there’s genuinely malign intention, the criminal law should come in as it does now.
But on the former concern about the services like palliative care which give people wider choices, let’s not see these as mutually exclusive. We can and should support people to make choices on their own terms. There are countries which have already expanded choice on assisted dying while also investing to improve other choices. We can do the same.
Following the recent vote at Westminster, I am hopeful that we are now at the point where most politicians recognise that the status quo can’t last. A change in the law is needed. We should respect people’s right to make choices on their own terms, in line with their own values. I look forward to voting for Liam’s bill, and I hope enough MSPs do so that we can finally achieve a change that the public have long supported.
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