Three quarters of Scottish doctors who provide end-of-life care would refuse to take part in assisted suicide if it became legal, a survey has found.
A remarkable 98% of palliative care doctors surveyed by the Association for Palliative Medicine of Great Britain and Ireland said that assisted suicide should not be part of mainstream healthcare.
Nearly half (43%) said they would resign if their organisation launched assisted suicide programmes. Nearly three quarters (71%) said they would consider resigning.
Proposals to make assisted suicide legal are contained within a Bill sponsored by Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur.
Dr Gordon Macdonald, CEO of the Care Not Killing Alliance, said that passing the legislation would "sound the death knell" for palliative care and trigger an exodus of doctors from the profession, with investment likely to be diverted elsewhere.
"MSPs need to think through the unintended consequences of legalising assisted suicide," he said.
"Hospices are already underfunded and have to rely on charity donations to survive.
"They are full owing to serious illnesses which were not diagnosed or treated during the pandemic.
"Palliative care provision is often patchy or not available in hospitals and community settings in evenings and at weekends owing to the existing shortage of Macmillan nurses and other staff.
"Already one in four cancer patients in Scotland don't get all the palliative care they would benefit from, according to Marie Curie Cancer Care.
"How much worse will the situation get if assisted suicide drives dedicated professionals out of palliative care altogether."
Palliative care expert Dr Gillian Wright, from Our Duty of Care (ODOC), a group of healthcare experts, said the survey revealed the depth of concern among palliative care doctors about assisted suicide.
"The palliative care community has made a clear statement that assisted dying should not be embedded in healthcare," she said.
"Doctors have expressed in this survey how it will damage the care they provide and adversely affect clinicians themselves, with significant impact on mental health and subsequent service provision.
"We urge MSPs to listen to their concerns."
Prof David Galloway, former President of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, warned of "real risks" to vulnerable groups and called safeguarding promises "dubious".
Instead of medically assisted suicide, he said that more "effort and energy" was needed to provide high quality and "compassionate" palliative care for all who need it.
"It is palliative care specialists who deal in the tragic effects of terminal illness," he said.
"This survey provides exactly the kind of expert advice MSPs ought to expect.
"It is timely, relevant, undeniably expert and highlights serious concerns about any change in the law to permit assisted suicide."
He added, "It must never be the responsibility of a medical professional to actively terminate life - it is the very opposite of what we are trained to do."
