Former Health Secretary Gene Freeman says it's an excellent time to help the dead.
Written byTimes Magazine
- Former Scottish Health Minister Gene Freeman said it was an excellent time to legalize euthanasia.
- Freeman, who stepped down as MSP SNP member and minister for Holyrood's May election, said he supported Liam McArthur's MSP Lib Dem bill.
It aims to establish the right to euthanasia for terminally ill and mentally capable adults. Freeman said he believed most Scots supported the move with reasonable precautions. Acting Health Minister Humza Youssef was questioned on the BBC Scotland Show on Sunday and said he was "not sure" in the case of legalizing assisted suicide.
Previous attempts to change Scottish laws have failed. They argue that it can put pressure on at-risk patients to choose options. Mr. MacArthur presented his new bill in June and consulted on its content.
The Scottish government has not said whether it will back the bill, although a previous 2015 experience, initially presented by the late Independent MP Margo MacDonald, allowed any MP to vote at will. Freeman, who had been Scotland's Minister of Health for three years, was not a member of the Scottish Parliament at the time.
He told BBC Scotland's Sunday program that he never spoke on the issue in his reign but expressed his views in internal discussions.
"My conclusion is I want this for myself and my loved ones," she said. "If I wanted to and did that, I don't see how I could deny it to anyone else." Activists opposing the plan said "most countries" did not allow people to take their own lives and warned that "gradually expanding" the law to more people was inevitable.
They say vulnerable people may feel pressured or burdened by relatives or health professionals and choose to end their lives "for the wrong reasons." Activists also say it will fundamentally change the doctor-patient relationship and devalue the lives of people with disabilities. Freeman said the proposed euthanasia law includes safeguards to protect the process from abuse.
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