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This is a follow-up to yesterday’s blog on Assisted Dying in Scotland …..

Three Wise Men came to Holyrood to support assisted dying in Scotland :

Ethical experts from leading Scottish universities have backed assisted dying proposals for those with a terminal illness. The Philosophers’ Consortium on Assisted Dying in Scotland, is comprised of ethical philosophy professors at Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews universities. In their view, “Even with the best that modern medicine can provide, many patients suffer terribly at the end of life. This Bill would give them the power to control how their lives end, and has strong safeguards against misuse”.

Three other Wise Men came to Holyrood to oppose assisted dying :

Faith leaders from the Church of Scotland, the Catholic Church and the Scottish Association of Mosques said it would “inevitably undermine the dignity of the human person” (though where is the evidence to demonstrate such “inevitability”, and how much “dignity” did a brother of mine have in the last very distressing weeks of his life?). They also said that “our society as a whole would lose its common humanity”. Where again is the evidence for such a sweeping assertion? It must be at least equally valid to suggest there would be a compassionate gain in our “common humanity”.

These latter Three Wise Men might care to note that the 2017 British Social Attitudes survey found that “the majority of people with a religion supported assisted dying for terminally ill patients (67%).” Perhaps, like the Three Wise Men of biblical days, they should “go back” and “take a different route”.