Special episode: Should assisted dying be legalised?

Warning: This episode contains discussions about death and suicide

In a special episode Emma looks at the issue of assisted dying and asks whether it should be legalised - and if it was, how could it work?

Later this year a bill will be introduced to the Scottish parliament that could see assisted dying legalised. In England the House of Commons health and social care committee is running an inquiry on the issue.

The Scottish bill is being put forward by Lib Dem member of Scottish parliament Liam McArthur. This is the third attempt to legalise assisted dying in Scotland since 1999, so could the law change this time?

Emma speaks to Scottish GPs on both sides of the debate about assisted dying.

She talks to Liam McArthur about why he is introducing the bill and its chances of success - and to GP Dr Sandesh Gulhane, a Conservative member of Scottish parliament who chaired a medical advisory group that produced a report on how assisted dying should work.

She also meets Dr Catherine Forest, a family doctor from California where assisted dying has been legal since 2016. Dr Forest was involved with work that helped pave the way for legalising assisted dying and and now supports patients and their families through the process of assisted dying. She also speaks very movingly about her husband Will, who chose an assisted death in 2021.

And we look at what a change of law could mean from patients’ point of view by talking to Jackie Roberts, who lives in Edinburgh and has incurable breast cancer, and Professor Kevin Yuill, a representative from Not Dead Yet, a group of disability activists that campaigns against assisted dying.

This episode was produced by Czarina Deen.

Sources

• Proposed Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill
• Medical Advisory Group Report on the assisted dying bill
• Proposed Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill - summary of consultation responses
• YouGov survey on assisted dying
• BMA survey of members on assisted dying from February 2020
• RCGP rejects change in stance on assisted dying - from GPonline
• Regional Euthanasia Review Committee from the Netherlands annual reports - showing the proportion of people who died by euthanasia.
• Dignitas report showing accompanied suicides per year and country of residence
• Third annual report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada 2021
• Oregon Death with Dignity Act 2021 data summary
• Dignity in Dying’s Last Resort report
• ONS suicide report
• Are Canadians being driven to assisted suicide by poverty or healthcare crisis? The Guardian
• Cost estimates for Medical Assistance in Dying

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