''Performative' speeches in assisted dying debate failed to address the real concerns which saw bill fall

As MSPs debated the matter of assisted dying ahead of a vote on Tuesday evening, those from both sides of the argument made increasingly emotional speeches. Some spoke of their own illnesses, others of the deaths of loved ones.

There were tears in the chamber.

Across social media, activists praised the various contributors for their thoughtfulness in discussing this most divisive of issues.

It’s certainly true that many of those MSPs who spoke during Tuesday evening’s debate did so with an unusual degree of personal candour, but so what?

We did not see Holyrood at its best last week, we saw it at its most performative. MSPs lined up to tell deeply personal stories of loss and courage, few of which were even remotely relevant to the matter being discussed which was whether the bill that would legalise state-sanctioned euthanasia was fit for purpose.

During one particularly jarring segue, the Liberal Democrat MSP Jamie Greene spoke about his personal fear of dying – “Truth be told, I do not want to die” he explained, as if he had only just discovered the concept of existential dread – only to be followed by the SNP’s Ruth Maguire who discussed her terminal cancer diagnosis.

These – and several more interventions – added nothing to our understanding of the proposed legislation. Rather, they formed part of a garish tapestry of meaningless confessions.

At the stage one vote on assisted dying, a majority of MSP’s backed Lib Dem Liam McArthur’s bill but, by Tuesday, much of that support had fallen away. The stage three vote saw the bill defeated by 69-57.

Speaking the next day, McArthur said that, while he would not attempt to bring the matter back to the Holyrood chamber during the next parliamentary session, he believed it was only a matter of time until assisted dying was legalised.

“I’m fairly confident as a result of what we saw last night,” said McArthur, “that the next attempt to get this over the line will be successful and probably fairly comfortably so.”

Whether an MSP tries to resurrect an assisted dying bill after May’s Holyrood election remains to be seen but it certainly seems plausible that someone will try. McArthur’s bill was, after all, the third attempt to legalise state-sanctioned euthanasia since the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999 and public support continues to grow.

But, while there may well be an MSP ready to pick up this particular baton, it is not at all clear that anyone will be able to build the sort of coalition that saw McArthur’s bill get so close to the wire.

In a bitterly divided Scottish Parliament, Liam McArthur is that rarest of creatures – a politician who enjoys warm relationships with opponents from across the political spectrum.

As one MSP put it to me the day after the bill fell, it wouldn’t have got as far as it did if it hadn’t been for McArthur’s central role.

It was not, however, only the pro-assisted side which managed to work across political boundaries on this issue.

Key to the defeat of McArthur’s bill was a coalition brought together by Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes and Labour MSP Michael Marra. The pair worked closely together behind the scenes to persuade any colleagues with the slightest doubts about the bill to join them in voting no.

It was, says one colleague, “old fashioned, grown up politics”. While supporters of the bill began to believe they had this one in the bag, Forbes and Marra picked off supporters during a series of private meetings.

Intriguingly, despite her firm opposition to assisted dying, Forbes did not speak during Tuesday night’s debate. I understand that the deputy first mMinister chose not to participate in these final discussions of the legislation because she feared any intervention from her might turn some of her SNP colleagues towards support for it.

Thanks to her socially conservative views – dictated by her devout Christianity – Forbes is a deeply divisive figure in her own party.

“Kate’s under no illusions about the way some of her colleagues see her,” said one MSP. “So she decided it was better to keep quiet during the debate in case she pushed anyone towards supporting McArthur.”

The decision of MSPs not to support assisted dying came as similar legislation at Westminster falters.

Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s private members bill to allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales to seek medical assistance to end their lives was supported in the House of Commons last year by a majority of 55. But, since then, it has all stalled during examination in the House of Lords.

Under parliamentary rules, any proposed legislation that has not been introduced by the government must pass all of its stages before the end of the parliamentary session during which it was introduced. If a bill runs out of time, it automatically falls.

With the current Westminster session due to end in May, there are just three more days of debate on assisted dying scheduled in the Lords. In that time, members will not even get close to considering around 600 amendments still to be discussed.

In both Edinburgh and London, supporters of assisted dying have failed to address serious concerns about how it might work in practice. There remain, for example, perfectly legitimate fears about coercion which neither Liam McArthur nor Kim Leadbeater have been able to assuage.

This issue is likely to come back to both Holyrood and Westminster at some point in the near future.

But, unless those politicians in favour of assisted dying can provide solidly reassuring answers on safety rather than simply offering up emotionally incontinent personal statements, it will deserve to fail again.