Assisted dying Scotland: High emotions as MSPs plead for votes on most-profound Holyrood decision
The emotional assisted dying debate was a display of Holyrood at its best.
In one of the most heart-wrenching and incredibly hard to watch speeches Holyrood has ever seen, Lorna Slater joined several other MSPs in laying bare their emotions in the final assisted dying debate that has captivated Scotland like no other piece of law the Scottish Parliament has ever considered.
The Scottish Parliament is occasionally criticised for failing to put the public at its heart - but nothing was further from the truth in this, at times, traumatic debate that had a firm focus on the people at the centre of this divisive issue.
Independent MSP, Jeremy Balfour, who is disabled, told his colleagues that he was “begging” them to consider what the consequences of the bill could be for the most vulnerable.
And there were incredible emotional pleas for colleagues to change the law.
SNP MSP George Adam, whose wife Stacey has been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, appealed for his peers to legalise assisted dying.
Ms Slater, visibly distressed, delivered a moving account of her father’s assisted death in Canada, pleading that “he didn’t want to risk gasping out his last…alone and afraid in the dark of the night.”
She ended, voice cracking, telling MSPs that his final moment, on his terms “was beautiful.”
Mr McArthur, who brought up Brian Churcher’s agonising death after his mother Tracy spoke to Scotland on Sunday, could not hold back his frustration that his bill was poised to be rejected, warning MSPs it was “just not good enough” to miss the chance to change the law.
All eyes were turned facing Mr McArthur in the chamber as he made his final plea, except the First Minister who stared straight ahead throughout.
There were other gripping speeches, including Jackson Carlaw’s almost surreal intervention that appeared to describe an Aaron Sorkin scene taking place in a Costa coffee shop.
READ MORE: Assisted Dying Bill Scotland updates: Follow along for the final vote on this historic bill
MSPs who have supported the bill have had pressure piled on them by religious groups and campaigners opposing a change in the law.
One MSP revealed that they had been named in shamed in their local parish newsletter for “supporting the evil legislation”.
Assisted dying timeline
Whatever happens next with Scotland’s assisted dying debate, because it is not going away, when MSPs are out shouting at each other in a few weeks on the election campaign, they should focus on the humanity and the empathy shown throughout this debate - and keep hold of the reason they all came to the Scottish Parliament in the first place.
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