NICOLA Sturgeon has said she will vote against proposals to legalise assisted dying in Scotland.
The former first minister said on Monday that it was “the most difficult decision I have had to arrive at in my years as an MSP”.
She said she would vote to oppose assisted dying legislation when the question is put to MSPs on Tuesday.
Holyrood is due to vote on the general principles of LibDem MSP Liam McArthur’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Adults (Scotland) Bill, which would introduce the right to assisted death for terminally ill, mentally competent adults.
If the vote falls, then it will mark the end of the third major attempt to legalise assisted dying in Scotland. If the vote passes, the legislation will go through for further consideration and amendments.
Last week, First Minister John Swinney said he would be voting against the proposals, as did Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
MSPs have a free vote and will not need to follow party lines. SNP Business Minister Richard Lochhead has said he will be supporting the bill, while Health Secretary Neil Gray is set to abstain.
In a statement on her position on Monday, former first minister Sturgeon said: "This has been the most difficult decision I have had to arrive at in my years as an MSP.
"I have been deeply moved by the personal testimony in support for the bill. However, I have set out here why I have come to the conclusion – after deep consideration – that I will vote against the bill tomorrow."
“However, like others I have been deeply moved by some of the personal testimony in support of the bill and have thought deeply about whether my views might have changed sufficiently to allow me to support this bill to become law now – or even just to allow it to pass at Stage 1 in the hope that my concerns could be addressed through amendments.
"I have come to the conclusion that while some of the misgivings I have about the bill in its current form could be addressed by amendments, some of my concerns are so fundamental that this would not be possible.
"It is for that reason I have decided to vote against the bill tomorrow."
Sturgeon said she had concerns about patient-doctor relationships and about society's attitude to death and caring for people at the end of their life.
However, the former SNP leader said her two fundamental concerns were linked to coercion and to the definition of "terminally ill".
She said: “I do not believe it will ever be possible to even identify, let alone guard against what is often described as internal coercion – a feeling on the part of terminally ill individuals that others might be better off if they were no longer here. I worry that older people in particular may be vulnerable to such a feeling.
“It would risk a situation in which a right to die might become, in the minds of some people, a perceived duty to die.”
She then added: “Secondly, I am deeply concerned that the definition of terminal illness in the bill is too wide. There are many people diagnosed with terminal conditions from which they will not recover and which will eventually cause them to die prematurely – the definition in the bill – who will nevertheless be able live full and happy lives for many months, even years before their death occurs.
“However, in the dark moment of a diagnosis – or in the aftermath of it – it may be difficult for them to envisage this. If assisted dying is an option, I worry that many people will choose to die more prematurely than they need to.”
Sturgeon’s intervention comes after a group of experts from the University of Edinburgh, University of Glasgow, and University of St. Andrews, called for MSPs to vote in support of the assisted dying legislation.
The Philosophers’ Consortium on Assisted Dying in Scotland (PCADS) said that for many “the best life will not turn out to be the longest possible life”.
Michael Cholbi, a professor and personal chair in philosophy at the University of Edinburgh who has written extensively on death and dying, said: "The Assisted Dying Bill for Scotland has benefited from an unprecedented degree of public consultation, expert scrutiny, and legislative debate.
“The people of Scotland can be confident that the bill will improve the end of life experience for many terminally ill individuals, as well as being administered safely and conscientiously.”
The University of Glasgow’s professor Ben Colburn added: "This Bill draws on international experience, and on world-leading research from Scottish universities, to set out an assisted dying regime that is tailor-made for Scotland.
“The option of an assisted death will reassure all of us who fear suffering in terminal illness.”
