Assisted dying bill to be put to Scottish Parliament

Despite McArthur assuring that the bill contains a number of safeguards - including several criteria for qualification for assisted dying such as requiring not just a terminal illness but a certificate of mental competency - others a less convinced.

Michael Veitch, a parliamentary officer at Care for Scotland, suggests there can be "no adequate safeguards" and that terminal prognoses are "fraught with uncertainty" and, as a result, "will affect every person living with a terminal illness, fundamentally alter the doctor-patient relationship, devalue disabled people's lives, and undermine wide efforts to prevent suicide."

The subject has always remained a flashpoint as most of those who are unfortunate to experience a loved one deteriorating from a terminal illness just want to end their pain and suffering, as well preserve their memory untouched by a difficult end to life.

On the other hand, beyond obvious religious factors and current legal obstacles, many people do not believe the NHS and public healthcare should be allowed to facilitate someone taking their own life. Ally Thomson, director of Dignity in Dying Scotland, has said that it is the blanket ban of assisted dying that is most problematic. Pointing to places like the USA, Australia and New Zealand where it is legal in some parts, she said: "The evidence and research from those places shows that this is a safe choice, a compassionate choice, it is not in any way an alternative to palliative care".