Scottish Parliament votes against Assisted Dying Bill 

A landmark bill lodged by Orkney MSP Liam McArthur has failed to win the majority support of the Scottish Parliament.

The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill would have allowed terminally-ill, mentally competent adults to seek medical help to end their lives. 

MSPs voted against the bill, this Tuesday evening, 69 to 57 with one abstention.

Inside an emotionally-charged Scottish Parliament chamber, MSPs spoke at length during a near four-hour debate, many recounting either their own experiences or that of their constituents with regards to providing a choice of how people choose to end their life.

Others, meanwhile, said they would reject the bill, holding significant concerns of coercion and that there were not the required safeguards in place in order to sway them.

But ultimately, as the hours ticked by, it looked increasingly likely that Mr McArthur had failed to win the support of the majority of his parliamentary colleagues.

In a final powerful urging to MSPs to vote for the bill, he said: “I simply cannot see how those voting ‘no’ this evening do not forfeit their right to then step outside this chamber and tell themselves, their constituents, and the wider public that they support the principles of a change in the law — but just not this bill, not at this time, not this way.

“That’s just not good enough.

“More importantly, it’s a woefully inadequate response to the suffering and trauma experienced by dying Scots and their families who have been grotesquely failed by the ban on assisted dying.

“As a growing number of countries and territories around the world including Jersey and the Isle of Man are proving, there is another way. We can and must do better.

“This is the time, this is the bill, this is the change that dying Scots desperately need us to take.”