Members of the Edinburgh-based legislature voted 69 to 57 against a bill that would have let people in Scotland with six months or less to live seek help to end their life. There was one abstention.
It came after an emotional debate that lasted around three hours and saw lawmakers tear up and applaud as they took turns to express their views on the issue.
They had been given a free vote on the assisted suicide bill, which meant they could decide according to their consciences, rather than along party lines.
Liberal Democrat lawmaker Liam McArthur, who drew up the Scottish bill, had urged colleagues to back it.
“If you believe that dying people should not have to suffer against their will and you have heard, like I have, of the many instances where they have been simply failed by the lack of compassion and safety in our current law, you now have to back this bill,” he said. “It is time to look terminally ill Scots in the eye and make this change.”
But opponents of assisted dying argued that vulnerable, elderly, ill and depressed people could be pressured to end their lives so they’re not a burden on others.
Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes of the governing Scottish National Party said she would vote against the bill. Some medical organizations, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, are also opposed.
“Doctors, psychiatrists, pharmacists and palliative care specialists — the people who would be tasked with implementing this — are asking us not to do it,” Forbes said. “They think this bill is unsafe.”
Some also expressed concerns over how such legislation could impact disabled people, putting them at further risk. Lawmaker Pam Duncan-Glancy insisted that “disabled people don't have real choices in life,” adding that it was “inconceivable to suggest the introduction of assisted dying is about choice.”
