Assisted Dying Bill is rejected in Scotland

By Dave Doveton, Anglican Mainstream.

Yesterday, in Holyrood, MSP’s voted to reject the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill.

This indeed is a tremendous victory for all those who worked in the campaigns against this proposed dark legislation. It is encouragement for us all, especially Christians standing for the truth in the public square. Even when odds seem stacked against us with celebrities, media personalities, and influencers in the culture at large supporting assisted suicide.

It is also a victory for the terminally ill, and those in palliative care, the elderly in general – who all would have faced pressure under this legal regime to ‘go along’ with what a new legal regime was now telling them was the ‘right’ thing to do.

Along with proposed changes to the abortion legislation, this is a struggle against an encroaching ‘culture of death’ which must and can be beaten with perseverance and faith in the God of life, and his son Jesus Christ who came ‘that we might have life, and life abundant’.

Two truths are paramount in this debate;

1. The nature of true compassion: Mike Judge has summed this up well, 'True compassion does not mean helping someone to die, but committing ourselves to care for them in life.' That statement captures a truth which modern society often forgets. Compassion is not measured by how quickly we remove suffering by eliminating the sufferer, but by our willingness to bear one another’s burdens.
2. The Christian doctrine of man: The fact is, encouraging suicide is to encourage an attack on the image of God, as every human being is made in his image.

Finally, these victories help not only the citizens of Great Britain, but also those of many other countries where assisted dying is being vigorously promoted, and legislation proposed.

Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory.

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