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THE UK's leading charity against euthanasia has demanded MSPs block "highly dangerous" moves to legalise assisted suicide. The letter to all 129 MSPs from Care Not Killing (CNK) is aimed at derailing Independent MSP Margo MacDonald's assisted deaths bill.
The organisation warned it will create a new industry of "euthanasia on demand".
Ms MacDonald launched her bill in December to remove the threat of criminal proceedings against friends and family who provided help to people with serious medical conditions in ending their own lives.
It followed her own dramatic revelation in March in a Holyrood debate that she wanted help to end her life when the condition from which she suffers, Parkinson's disease, became intolerable. And she launched the consultation for her bill shortly after the assisted death in Switzerland of Dan James, a promising young English rugby player who was almost completely paralysed in an accident while playing a game.
But CNK – a coalition of some of the UK's leading care charities, health organisations and faith groups – has warned that Ms MacDonald's proposals are seriously flawed and will be "open to abuse".
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