Hospice UK responds to assisted dying bill amendment votes in Scottish parliament

Aileen Morton, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at Hospice UK says: “MSPs have taken an important step today to ensuring any the impact on hospices and palliative care providers in Scotland is considered, should assisted dying be legalised. 

“Hospice UK has no collective view on whether the law should change on assisted dying, yet we feel it would be a moral and practical failure if a single person in future felt compelled to seek an assisted death due to a lack of available palliative care. Every person in Scotland should be able to access high-quality care and support at the end of life, wherever they live. 

“By voting unanimously to support amendments 54 and 55, MSPs have recognised the potential impact proposed legislation could have on the hospice sector, and pledged to assess and mitigate the impact of the Bill on palliative care and create a code of practice for palliative care providers.  

“These amendments are vital to support hospices and the palliative care sector to be robustly prepared should the Bill become law and to ensure assisted dying is not introduced at the expense of existing palliative and end of life care services.”