'Overwhelming' support' for assisted dying law
The MSP behind a new attempt to legalise assisted dying in Scotland for terminally-ill people has said he is "convinced" it will be passed.
Liam McArthur's bill, to be published on Thursday, would permit medical assistance for people wishing to end their lives.
Two previous attempts to change the law on the issue were decisively defeated at Holyrood. Mr McArthur said he believed the political mood had changed.
The LibDem MSP told the BBC Scotland's The Sunday Show: "We know the public has shown support for a change in the law for probably the last couple of decades but there has been a reluctance from MSPs across the parties to take that step.
"I detect a real shift in the political mood, driven in a large part by witnessing countries and states across the world introducing heavily safeguarded provisions of the kind I'm looking to introduce here in Scotland."
He said his proposals would require diagnosis of a terminal illness by two separate doctors and a 14-day cooling off period after which a medical substance could be supplied, to be self-administered.
"The ban on assisted dying at the moment is leaving to too many people at the end of life facing horrible traumatic deaths that impact not just them but those that they leave behind, despite the best efforts of palliative care," he said.
He added: "I am absolutely convinced that this long-overdue reform will pass and that the political mood now is closer to where the public mood has been for so long."
