Scottish vote against assisted suicide provides ‘new impetus’ for opponents of Westminster bill

The vote by MSPs that defeated the latest attempt to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland has provided “new impetus” for those challenging the introduction of similar laws in England and Wales, disabled activists believe.

There was huge relief among disabled campaigners who had fought to defeat the assisted dying for terminally ill adults (Scotland) bill when Tuesday night’s vote saw it fall by 69 votes to 57.

But they say the results will also “bolster” the efforts of disabled peers and allies concerned about the safety of a private members’ bill – similar to the Scottish bill – that is currently being debated by the House of Lords.

The Westminster bill will almost certainly run out of time to become law by the end of the current session of parliament in May, but there are likely to be attempts to revive the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill in the next session and force it into law using the Parliament Act, although it would still need to be voted on by MPs.

The disabled people’s organisation Glasgow Disability Alliance (GDA) said it was “relieved and glad” that MSPs had seen the “gaps and the concerns” with the Scottish legislation, which was brought forward by Liberal Democrat Liam McArthur.

Baroness [Jane] Campbell, founder of Not Dead Yet UK (NDY UK), said the vote was “a great relief” and that she felt “hopeful” that a similar defeat was possible in the UK parliament if that bill also fails to meet the “public safety test”.

She said the result provided “new impetus” for peers carrying out the “necessary detailed scrutiny” of the private members’ bill sponsored by Labour’s Kim Leadbeater in the Commons and Labour peer Lord Falconer in the Lords.

Disabled independent MSP Pam Duncan-Glancy had told MSPs on Tuesday that the Scottish bill would put disabled people at risk of coercion and “legitimise the view that a life such as ours – a life of dependence and, often, pain – is not for living”.

She described a series of battles she has had to “get the help that I need to live like the rest of you”, such as fighting for a care package to allow her to attend university; being allowed to travel on the same bus as her husband; having her bathroom adapted so she could have a shower; and keeping her overnight care package after the council said it would be cheaper for her to lie all night in incontinence pads.

She said: “I am one of the most empowered people in this country, and I have been broken by how hard it is to get the help that I need to live like the rest of you.”

She added: “It is inconceivable to suggest that the introduction of assisted dying is about choice when disabled people do not have choices in life.

“In a world where so many have little or no choice, we cannot risk making death the only choice that they ever have.

“If the bill passes, in a world of inequality it will be easier to access help to die than help to live.”

Another disabled independent MSP, Jeremy Balfour, told fellow MSPs that disabled people were “frightened” by the prospect of the bill being passed.

He said: “Imagine that you relied on your family and friends to make daily sacrifices to help you to get up, dress and be ready for the day.

“Imagine that you had been told by many people, including a number of politicians, that you were a burden on society and that the benefits that you rely on to survive could be better spent elsewhere.

“I want you to imagine that, on numerous occasions, you have heard the words, ‘I’d rather die than live like you.’

“How do you think you would feel, watching this debate? I think you would, rightly, feel terrified.”

He added: “In passing the bill, we would be opening a Pandora’s box and the effects on the most vulnerable people in our society would be devastating.

“Despite what we have heard from those on the other side of the debate, there can be no meaningful protection against coercion and we cannot legislate against the feeling of being a burden.

“We cannot legislate for the throwaway comments that make me and others feel that our lives are worth less.”

Before the vote, Scottish disabled people’s organisations (DPOs) – including Glasgow Disability Alliance and Inclusion Scotland – had written an open letter to MSPs imploring them to vote against the bill and warning of the risk of disabled people being coerced into choosing an assisted suicide if it passed.

They warned in the letter of the “watering down of safeguards” throughout the passage of the bill, which had led to “well-founded fears about the risk of coercion”, particularly for people who are made to feel like a burden by family, friends or wider society, with many professionals warning that “coercion is extremely difficult to identify”.

They pointed out that no DPO in Scotland or the UK publicly supported the bill while many royal colleges had “expressed strong concerns around the lack of safeguards”.

After the vote, Tressa Burke, GDA’s chief executive, said it was clear that, “in the current political, social and economic context, assisted dying is dangerous”.

She said: “We are so relieved and just glad that the MSPs in Scotland saw the gaps and the concerns in the draft legislation.

“Disabled people don’t have choices or control over their lives.

“Indeed, we hear a lot about how much we cost and never what we’re worth.

“This is the ‘framing’ in which decisions to ‘choose’ assisted dying would be made.”

She pointed, as many MSPs and campaigners have done, to the risk of coercion, the potential future expansion of the law if it was legalised, and concerns raised by GPs, pharmacists, psychiatrists and social workers.

She told Disability News Service (DNS): “Moving forward we’ll be focusing on getting people the right support at the right time, including health and social care services, financial support, mental health and wellbeing, peer support and palliative care.

“We want and need disabled people to have access to the support and services we need to live, rather than support to die.

“The former must come first – this is not the right social, political or economic context and it is the wrong time.

“Until inequalities are eradicated, it will never be the right time.”

Baroness Campbell told DNS that the “good margin” of victory in the Scottish Parliament now “gives us new impetus in the Lords, to carry on with the necessary detailed scrutiny which we have recently been berated for.

“It shows clearly that you cannot legislate on the principal alone.

“If legislation does not pass the public safety test, parliamentarians would rightly vote it down.

“Some say we are filibustering or nitpicking throughout the terminally ill adults (end of life) bill in the Lords. We are not.

“We are doing our job, which is to ensure the legislation works safely in practice – so far it doesn’t.”

She said MSPs “did the right thing” by voting down “very similar legislation” because there were “too many unanswered questions to be satisfied”, including the risk of coercion and the negative impact on disabled people’s lives.

Mike Smith, an NDY UK spokesperson, added: “The quality of contributions [in the debate] showed that, once parliamentarians properly consider the complexities of this issue, they realise that in this form, at this time, legalising assisted suicide is simply not safe.

“This makes it clear that the battle is far from over.

“We must continue to make the case that disabled people’s voices and concerns must be central to this debate.

“Westminster parliamentarians should pay careful attention to this outcome; not just the result, but the sophisticated analysis and commentary, which was sadly lacking in the debate in the House of Commons last year.

“Peers currently seeking amendments to the Leadbeater/Falconer bill should be bolstered by the Scottish result, knowing that the work they are doing is just and necessary.”

Two days before the vote, NDY UK had released new polling which found nearly seven in 10 Scots (69 per cent) agreed that the Scottish Parliament should prioritise improving access to care for disabled people before legalising assisted suicide (an increase from 66 per cent in May 2025).

Two-thirds (66 per cent) agreed that disabled people who feel like a burden may feel a sense of responsibility to seek an assisted suicide if the law changed, with that figure having increased from 59 per cent since May 2025.

The same proportion (66 per cent) said they were concerned that some disabled people could be coerced into assisted suicide by others who did not have their best interests at heart.

Picture: (From left to right) Baroness Campbell, Jeremy Balfour and Pam Duncan-Glancy