(LifeSiteNews) — The debates on assisted suicide in the United Kingdom have, for once, been heartening. Watching from Canada, I am envious of both the stiff opposition from many press publications on both the right and left, as well as the institutional pushback from civil society organizations and in the British House of Lords.

In Scotland, palliative care specialists have come out in opposition to the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill. “We are deeply concerned that legislation in its present and now amended form is clinically unsafe, inequitable, and unworkable,” the Association of Palliative Medicine (APM) stated in a letter. “We urge extreme cau­tion: dying people need invest­ment in care and sup­port, not legis­la­tion that could com­pound exist­ing inequit­ies.”

The bill was put forward as a Member’s Bill by Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur on March 27, 2024, and passed Stage 2 on November 25. It will now move to Stage 3, but if a few MSPs change their minds in response to robust public opposition, the bill could still fail. The legislation would permit terminally ill adults to “ask for a self-taken lethal drug if overseen by two doctors.”

McArthur and his allies are getting concerned at the pushback to the bill, with McArthur belligerently highlighting polls indicating “overwhelming” support. “This isn’t some radical change,” he insisted. “It’s the overwhelming will of the Scottish people. For any MSP colleagues still on the fence, I am urging you to work with me to pass this bill. I have spoken with many [pal­li­at­ive care pro­fes­sion­als] who see assisted dying as an essen­tial part of patient-centered care at the end of life.”

But the APM isn’t buying it. “We wrote as the professional body representing over 1,400 palliative medicine specialists across Great Britian and Ireland to express our profound and escalating professional concerns,” said Dr. Matt Dore, APM’s honorary secretary. Dr. Gordon Macdonald of Care Not Killing echoed those concerns, calling McArthur’s bill a “huge threat to the most vulnerable patients.”

READ: Some Canadian doctors are pushing to allow euthanasia for newborns

Euthanasia activist Ally Thomson of Dignity in Dying Scotland responded with the emotional blackmail that defines their approach: “The most dangerous thing the Parliament can do here is nothing.” It is both delusional and insidious to claim that not legalizing, normalizing, and facilitating suicide is “dangerous” while making the implicit claim that for Scots to die with dignity, they must die faster.

Kim Leadbeater’s private member’s bill is facing a similar challenge in the House of Lords, where Lord Charlie Falconer, a euthanasia extremist who is sponsoring the bill, has suggested that Parliament attempt to circumvent the Upper Chamber if the peers do not get in line and pass it. An increasingly desperate Leadbeater has claimed that the government has a “duty” to get the bill through, despite the fact that it is not a government bill and has been opposed by several high profile Labour ministers. In fact, polls indicate that a majority of Britons oppose bypassing the House of Lords by a solid majority.

Leadbeater’s suicide bill has received almost unprecedented backlash from a long list of prestigious organizations including the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Disability Rights UK, and more.

Matthew Parris, a former Tory MP who once penned a pro-euthanasia column titled “Soon we will accept that useless lives must end,” has taken to the pages of the Spectator to excoriate Catholics for their opposition to the bill. Georgia Gilhoy penned a magnificent response in the Catholic Herald:

Equally arrogant is [Parris’s] vague assertion that “public opinion” backs the Bill, ignoring the sad fact that many people assume that the euphemistic term “assisted dying” refers to a form of palliative care. The public – Catholic, irreligious and everything in between – are aghast at the aggressive attempts to push through this particular Bill, especially when confidence in our state health service has plummeted to record lows. Moreover, concerns that people could be pushed into assisted suicide to save NHS money are understandably repulsive.

Gilhoy’s response to Parris is to take his screed as a compliment: “Are Catholics to ‘blame’ for frustrating the campaign for assisted suicide? I certainly hope so.”