Thursday, December 2, 2010

Holyrood MSPs reject Bill legalising the right to die, 85-16, Margo MacDonald is pledged to continue, time to end her political career in 2011













Dear All

Despite the bad weather which has recently come, it is not all bad news, Margo MacDonald’s controversial End of Life Assistance Bill was overwhelmingly been defeated by MSPs in Holyrood.

The winning marginal was huge but 16 MSP voted for this Bill.

She has lost but rather then give up MacDonald has pledged she will try again to legalise assisted suicide.

This means that the people of Edinburgh have a clear duty before them at Holyrood 2011 election.

Don’t vote Margo MacDonald.

When you elect an MSP, you expect certain things as a matter of course, for example that they will improve your quality of life.

Legalised killing isn’t what we send people to Holyrood to support.

85-16 was the result of the free vote that allowed MSPs to vote with their consciences and not along party lines.

Margo MacDonald thinks that if it wasn’t an election year then she could have attracted more support, but I personally doubt it.

MacDonald says the outcome was what she had expected.

In trying to garner support the Independent MSP used up much of her speech to attack Care Not Killing.

Care Not Killing is a collection of faith-based, disability, healthcare and human rights bodies that opposed her plans.

They were fighting for the greater good.

If this Bill had passed it would be the thin end of the wedge and as we have seen with other Acts of Parliament, it would be subject to abuse.

MacDonald accused Care Not Killing of a “cheap and unworthy” contribution to the debate by publishing a “catalogue of linguistic contortions” as well as saying their campaign literature was “tacky”.

But they won!

The law is clear on this matter; it is not lawful to assist somebody to commit suicide.

All law should be subject to review but in life there are some things which are seen as absolutes, the right to live being one.

Michael McMahon, convener of the cross-party groups on palliative care and disability said:

“The proposed new law is dangerous and unnecessary.”

I see this as being all about Margo McDonald wanting to have a legacy because she is at the end of her career and wants to be remembered.

This is the wrong legacy.

Tory MSP Nanette Milne, a former health professional, said:

“the idea of actively and deliberately hastening death, by assisting someone to die, is extremely disturbing”.

Dr Calum Mac Kellar of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics describes the vote as “a victory for all the vulnerable people who may have felt under pressure to end their lives”.

Margo McDonald seems to think that there is dignity in dying and her Bill would make that event a wonderful experience, perhaps she watched the 1973 movie Soylent Green where Edward G Robinson in his last movie role goes to a clinic to die.

Soft music fills the air and he watches pretty pictures before slipping away.

Later on he is dissected and his body parts used for food.

Of course that couldn’t happen here but it isn’t a stretch to imagine that a person could be ripped apart for salvageable body parts for transplant.

We have seen countless instances of law and medical abuse, the only protection the public has is to firmly say no.

Margo McDonald’s Bill was rightly killed stone dead but now the public have to be surgeons to remove her from the body politic.

She is like a cancer that needs to be cut out of Holyrood.

2011 gives the voters the chance to put her under the knife, her career must end and the public shouldn’t hesitate for a moment.

Political death by ballot box is something I support in her case.

I don’t know if she is plain stupid or just a fiend.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We'll see what the public's view is next year. I strongly suspect she will return to parliament.