TERMINALLY ill Scots and people who cared for dying loved ones have backed fresh calls for right to die legislation in Scotland.
The campaign launches today as a new poll from pressure group, Dignity in Dying, found that nine in ten Scots wanted assisted dying to become law.
Campaigners want Scotland to adopt legislation based on the Oregon model in the United States where patients with six months to live can ask their doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of medication which they can then self-administer to end their life early.
It comes after the UK's Supreme Court put an end to former lecturer Noel Conway's bid to change the law in England and Wales.
Mr Conway, who has motor neurone disease and can only move his right hand, head and neck, was refused permission in November to appeal against an earlier ruling by the High Court refusing him his right to die.
Mr Conway had wanted medical assistance to end his life when he was deemed to have only six months left to live.
However, Scotland has the power to set its own laws on assisted dying and could choose to break with policy in the rest of the UK.
A poll of 1057 adults in Scotland conducted by Populus between March 11-24 2019 found that nearly 90 per cent supported a change in the law.
Read more: Top doctors back change in law on assisted suicide
Ally Thomson, Director of Dignity in Dying Scotland, said: "It’s clear that assisted dying for terminally ill people has the support of the Scottish public. This latest poll shows that support which was high to begin with is only increasing.
"Most Scots believe that dying people should not be forced to suffer at the end of life and that there are currently too many bad deaths. Their views cannot be ignored.
"The law in Scotland needs to change. In a world where people feel there is so much division on some issues in our Parliaments, assisted dying is an issue on which almost everyone agrees.
“This campaign is all about love and putting the voice of people who have lived and are living through the injustice of the current law at the heart of the debate.
"All the people featured in the campaign either love life and don’t want to have a bad death or have seen someone they love suffer and don’t wish that to happen to anyone else.
"They are bravely telling their stories and encouraging other people to have their voices heard on this too."
Dignity in Dying Scotland has launched a new nationwide advertising campaign, ‘Let’s do the Right Thing’, featuring people who are dying and those who have lost loved ones.
Supporters can also sign an online official register of support for assisted dying at www.letsdotherightthing.org.
Read more: Retired GP reveals he is willing to assist in suicide
Liz Wilson, 45, from Cumbernauld features in the campaign.
Mrs Wilson said her husband Craig, who died from cancer in December, had begged to go to a suicide clinic in Switzerland.
She said: “Craig was only 45 when cancer took over his whole body. It was horrific to watch him suffer in the way he did. No amount of palliative care could help him.
"For Craig, while he was dying a minute was like an hour and a day like a year. He begged to go to Switzerland but it was sadly too late. I loved him so much and did not want him to die but when he did it was a relief as he finally escaped from all the pain and suffering he was experiencing.
"I don’t believe anyone should have to go through what Craig did. I have promised to campaign to change the law so no one else has to.”
Kay Smith, 54, from Kilwinning has also joined the campaign. She nursed her own mother when she was dying and said the experience "traumatised" her and she wants to spare her own children the distress.
Ms Smith suffers from Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) as well as a condition that makes her severely allergic to pain medication and antibiotics.
It means she is at high risk of contracting an infection and developing sepsis, but would not be able to be treated due to her fatal reaction to medication.
She said: “I absolutely love my life but know that my illness means that I will die and most likely of blood poisoning.
"As a former Palliative Care nurse I know that this would be horrendous for my family to watch.
"I believe we should have assisted dying here in Scotland so that people like me would have a choice at the end of our lives.
"I intend to live fully to my last breath and it would let me live while I am dying – free from the worry of what is to come for me and the trauma it would inflict on my husband and my daughters.”
At the moment an estimated one person every eight days is travelling from the UK to Switzerland in order to end their life.
Dignity in Dying argues that the current system means that only those who can afford to travel abroad to Switzerland can access assisted suicide.
They say it also means that many patients with terminal illnesses feel compelled to end their lives earlier than they would wish because they have to be fit enough to make the journey.
Dignity in Dying Scotland is calling on the Scottish Parliament to introduce safe and compassionate laws that would allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults the choice of an assisted death.
Dawn Morton, 34 from Dunfermline has Motor neurone disease. She was diagnosed in 2014 and now requires 24 hour ventilation and care.
Ms Morton said she wants the choice of an assisted death as she doesn’t want her six year old daughter Abigail to watch her suffer a gruelling death.
She said: “I couldn’t afford to go to Switzerland and it is important to me to be around as long as possible for my daughter, but I don’t want her to see me die badly and in pain. I wish the choice of assisted dying was available in Scotland so I could decide when the time was right for me.
"I am asking MSPs to give me and other people like me this choice.”
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