Liam McArthur rules out fresh assisted dying bill after election

The MSP behind the assisted dying bill which failed to achieve parliamentary approval on Tuesday evening has said he will not reintroduce the proposal after the election.

Liam McArthur MSP has said he was “devastated” and “heartbroken” that his Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill was rejected by MSPs.

But he said he was “confident” that the next attempt to legalise it would pass.

The proposal would have allowed terminally ill, mentally competent adults to seek medical support to end their lives.

Supporters of the bill say it would have delivered more choice and reduced the likelihood of Scots suffering “bad deaths”.

But opponents expressed concerns about safeguards, coercion and the impact it might have on disabled people.

After a four-hour debate, MSPs voted against the bill by 69 votes to 57.

It is the closest such legislation has come to passing at Holyrood, with previous attempts failing to get beyond stage one.

In the end, 11 MSPs changed their mind since the debate on its general principles last year.

McArthur said he expects those MSPs who are in favour of the principle of assisting suicide but ultimately voted against this bill would come to “deeply regret” their decision.

Speaking to the BBC’s Around Orkney programme, he added: “I'm fairly confident as a result of what we saw last night that the next attempt to get this over the line will be successful and probably fairly comfortably so.

“This issue is not going away, the number of people affected by these bad deaths – given the demographic trends, given the advances in medicine – those numbers are only going to increase, and meantime the overwhelming majority of people across Scotland are supportive of a change.”

He also urged members of the public to raise the issue with candidates in the run-up to May’s election.