Silent Witness actress Liz Carr and Liam McArthur MSP share their thoughts on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill ahead of the stage one vote at the Scottish Parliament. Liz Carr is against the bill, and Liam McArthur is the MSP who introduced the bill.
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00:00It's the culmination of a long four years of hard work. It's exciting, it's nerve-wracking.
00:07I'm confident that the majority of my MSP colleagues recognise the need for reform,
00:14or at the very least the need for Parliament to be given more time to look into the detail of my Bill,
00:20consider amendments before finally deciding whether or not to back the proposals.
00:25So we'll see where things get to this evening, but I'm hopeful that we'll take a significant step forward
00:33in putting in place a long overdue reform.
00:36I think it's up to colleagues how they engage with this issue, whether they want to make public their views
00:44or want to continue right up to the last minute to reflect on what they're hearing from constituents,
00:51from stakeholder groups and elsewhere.
00:54I think the situation with all three that you mentioned, they've been long-standing opponents of a change in the lot.
01:02In the case of John Swinney, I think he was on record as saying he feels a lot more conflicted,
01:08a lot more uncertain than he did on previous occasions.
01:12So he's been on a journey, but I was never really expecting him or Nicola Sturgeon or Kate Forbes to back it.
01:18I think importantly there are many, many colleagues who come to this with their own personal experience,
01:24have listened to the personal stories of constituents and recognise that, as I say,
01:29the ban on assisted dying in Scotland, I was failing too many dying Scots and their families at the end of life
01:35and that reform is urgently needed.
01:38This is an issue that's not going away.
01:40These stories that we've heard loudly and clearly throughout this debate
01:45are only going to become more common, more frequent.
01:49The demand for a change in the law is only going to intensify.
01:52Well, we get into the detail, and I think that's an argument I've been making very strongly to colleagues,
01:57that whether or not you still have concerns about aspects of the bill,
02:00we need to be able to get into the detail to consider amendments,
02:03first in committee and then in the full chamber in Parliament.
02:07So that will take place later on this year.
02:10I suspect the committee will not return to the stage two until after the summer recess,
02:15but there's an awful lot of hard work still to be done.
02:18First up, though, we need to get the general principles backed.
02:20I'm keeping everything crossed, but I'm hopeful that will happen later on this evening.
02:24I'm here to give my support to opposing the Liam MacArthur bill.
02:29I don't believe that it is safe, it's too great a risk to be legalising assisted suicide
02:34for a group that, with the definition under that bill, is much wider than just terminally ill people.
02:39I appreciate that there are a number of people that want this bill to pass to the next stage,
02:45but equally there are many people, and many of those people do not have a voice.
02:49That's a huge reason why I'm here, is to give voice to the opposition that exists,
02:53groups of disabled people. There is not one group of disabled people in the UK that supports this.
03:00We are here today, and we will be here throughout the day, to say, think about the risk,
03:05think about the protection, protecting all people, older people, disabled people, terminally ill people too.
03:11This law is dangerous, and we don't want to see it pass.
03:16There will be no choice. It will be easier to get assisted dying than to get support to live.
03:23And based on that, we feel it is not the right time, and this is not the right bill.
03:28I will keep being here until the last minute, and even if the bill is passed,
03:33we will keep, keep an eye on it, we will keep protesting to make sure it doesn't extend, because it will.
03:38Because despite what people are saying, these bills extend, they always do, they expand to other groups of people.
03:46And so we will keep being here, we will keep being vigilant, and keep saying, it's not safe.