Legislation in the Netherlands and Switzerland has given doctors a legal certainty that enables them to choose to assist a patient to end their life, the End of Life Assistance Bill Committee heard today as it began taking oral evidence.

In its first session the committee, which is chaired by Liberal Democrat MSP Ross Finnie, heard from Dr Georg Bosshard, Lecturer in Medical Ethics at the University of Zurich and at the Fachhochschule Gesundheit WE'G; Professor Martin Buijsen, Professor of Health Law, Institute of Health Policy and Management, Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam; and Dr Rob Jonquière, former Chief Executive of the NVVE (Dutch Right-to-Die Association) and Communications Director, World Federation of Right to Die Societies about their countries’ experiences of similar legislation.

Assisted suicide legislation came into effect in the Netherlands in 2002, however it was tolerated for nearly 30 years prior to that so the country has a lot of experience in this issue, the committee was told. The present law first and foremost tries to provide legal certainty to doctors, Professor Buijsen said.

Conservative MSP Nanette Milne asked the witnesses how confident they are that there has been no undue influence placed on people to have assisted suicide as a result of the legislation.

Dr Bosshard replied: “In the end you cannot read minds.”

However, he added that in the normal course of events when an individual expresses a wish for assistance to end their life their family are not happy at all with their wish and it can take some months to accept that their mother or father wants to die.

“So if you experience those events you can see it is very unlikely that there is pressure coming from the family,” he said.

However, he conceded that in some “exceptional” cases there could be a danger of this and added that this is something to be careful of.

SNP MSP Michael Matheson asked about why there seems to be greater acceptance of euthanasia among the public than the medical profession.

Bosshard replied that it is a difficult decision for doctors as it goes beyond medicine and yet they are still responsible. Often the only motive is compassion or the belief that this is the ‘least worse solution’, he said.

While he said he understands their unhappiness, personally he feels they have to engage in the discussion. He also added that the fact that doctors aren’t happy about assisted suicide is the “most important safeguard.”

Similarly, Dr Jonquière said that in his experience assisting a patient with suicide is “emotionally a heavy duty” but he is also happy to have helped.

The committee also heard from Professor Penney Lewis, Professor of Law, School of Law and Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, Kings College London; Lord Mackay of Clashfern; and from Adrian Ward, Convener, Mental Health and Disability Committee, Law Society of Scotland.

It will meet again tonight at 5pm to take evidence by video conference from Professor Linda Ganzini, Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine Senior Scholar, Center for Ethics in Health Care at Oregon Health and Science University;  and Deborah Whiting Jaques, Executive Director/CEO, Oregon Hospice Association.