Euthanasia, mercy killing, assisted suicide or whatever you care to call it is a profoundly difficult, emotional and complex subject which many Christians, including yours truly, struggle with.
On the one hand the case for preventing pointless suffering at the end of life seems strong. That is until you examine the consequences of a society allowing the State to kill its own citizens – even at their request. I have wrestled with, and continue to wrestle with, all the complexities of this. For example I wrote this open letter on the subject to my MP. And I took a whole episode of my podcast to reflect on the emotions, realities and theological implications of it all.
As someone who personally came very close to death and who regularly ministers to those who are dying or want to die, I have a deep and personal interest in this. So it was with a heavy heart that I woke up one morning this week in Australia only to discover that the politicians in my native land had decided to go the regressive route of assisted suicide.
The Scottish Parliament has already turned down physician assisted suicide two times, but that has not stopped those for whom this is the equivalent of a religious doctrine which must be enforced. This week, after yet another attempt, the Scottish Parliament voted 70 to 56 in favour of allowing assisted suicide.
You will note that I am refusing to call it assisted dying. That is because it is not assisted dying. When you grant someone palliative care, you are assisting them in their death. When you assist someone to take their own life, you are assisting their suicide. Words, names and language matter.
The bill allows terminally ill, mentally competent adults to seek medical help to end their lives. It is not yet law and will still have to pass through two more stages of parliamentary procedure before it becomes law, but it is unlikely that eight MSPs will change their minds.
The debate, and the reporting on it, followed the usual patterns in these debates. People told understandably emotive stories of suffering relatives, although stories of those who felt pressured to take their own lives were absent from the reporting.
The politicians congratulated themselves on what a respectful debate they had had. The victors announced that this was a “victory for compassion”. The Labour MSP Pam Duncan-Clancy, the first wheelchair user to be elected to Holyrood, gave a superb speech pointing out the threats to disabled people because of this legislation. The Glasgow MSP said she feared it could become "easier to access help to die than help to live". And she warned the bill could "legitimise a view that a life like ours, one of dependence and often pain, is not worth living". I loved the fact that she was supported by the wonderful disabled actor, Liz Carr, the star of Silent Witness.
It is notable that the Scottish First Minister John Swinney, and his deputy, Kate Forbes, voted against. As did the Labour leader, Anas Sarwar, and former First Ministers Nicola Sturgeon and Humza Yousaf. It is equally fascinating that 11 Tory MSPs voted in favour (19 against); 41 SNP in favour (19 against); all the Greens of course voted in favour; and the Lib Dems voted 4 in favour, 1 against. What surprised and encouraged me was that while 7 Labour MSPs voted in favour, 15 voted against.
It is also interesting that the UK government slipped out a report last Friday which callously suggested that assisted suicide could save the NHS $10 million per year, and something called the Equality Impact Assessment which was concerned with barriers that could prevent disabled and mentally ill people from taking advantage of this ‘service’. The report even talks about the disadvantages that ‘pregnant persons’, the poor, and transgender people might face in requesting assisted suicide.
Which brings me back to the personal. This week was also my mother’s 90th birthday. She is a frail woman who lives on her own in the Scottish Highlands. I marvel at her strength and life. God forbid that she would ever feel under any pressure to take her own life – for the sake of her children. Do not doubt that that happens. A woman is told that she can either sell her home and pay for her end-of-life care or take her life and have her children keep their inheritance. Who would not feel that pressure?
I now live in a country - Australia - where assisted suicide is legal and encouraged. I cannot begin to describe what a darkness that brings on those whose job is to heal and care for the dying and yet are compelled to offer and facilitate their death. And the pressure on those who feel elderly, disabled and useless is real and sustained.
One quote on X summarised the whole situation for me: “A sad day for Scotland. I simply cannot trust a Parliament that didn’t know the difference between a man and a woman to produce a piece of legislation that won’t result in the most vulnerable in society being killed by the State.”
In Proverbs 8:36 we are told that it is those who hate the personification of Wisdom (ultimately seen in Christ) who love death. Increasingly Western societies, as they turn away from their Christian roots, become cultures of death. We hope and pray that we will turn back, and once again become cultures of life.
David Robertson, a Scot in exile, Newcastle, New South Wales. Find him at The Wee Flea.
