The Smell of Death

The stink of corruption and sleaze coming from the SNP has been rather overpowering recently but underneath it is the sickly smell of something far more worrying - the smell of death. Nicola Sturgeon seems to think that admitting to making a mistake which lead to the deaths of thousands of elderly care home residents will somehow act like febreze, dispelling all smells, but thousands of grieving relatives think otherwise and the promise of an inquiry is small comfort. Early Scottish Government guidance which said that it was advisable for covid cases in care homes not to be sent to hospital and the blanket issuing of Do Not Resuscitate notices or DNRs in care homes show a scant regard for human life, especially elderly, vulnerable human life, on the part of the SNP, and is in keeping with the hope expressed by numerous SNP supporters, including current Edinburgh Central candidate Angus Robertson, that the sooner the older generation die off, the sooner Scotland will be independent.

That desire to see the back of troublesome older people makes it all the more worrying to see that the SNP, in their current manifesto, are planning, if re-elected, to set up a citizen's assembly to look at legalising assisted dying. The Scottish Greens, who might help the SNP to form the next government, are already committed to introducing assisted suicide. At least they are being honest - the SNP are employing their old trick of only committing to some sort of consultation on a contentious topic before an election but their track record shows that their consultations always lead to the outcome they desire (same-sex marriage, the smacking ban being two examples of this).

At the other end of life, Nicola Sturgeon announced in September 2020 that expanded abortion access was a priority for the Scottish Government and the SNP currently does not seem to support the right of politicians of Northern Ireland to decide on abortion laws for the province, preferring to sit on their hands while Westminster imposes extremely liberal abortion laws on a devolved government against its wishes. This is total hypocrisy on the part of the SNP who would scream blue murder if Westminster tried the same tactic with Holyrood.

The Scottish Government has recently tried to say that saving lives has been their priority during the Covid pandemic. Calton thinks that they have actually become accustomed to a culture of death, whether it be in care homes due to covid, a back alley due to drugs or in the womb due to abortion because actions (or inaction) speak louder than words and the statistics speak for themselves.

Would someone please kill this bill?

Calton has to give Margo MacDonald 10/10 for perseverance and 10/10 for bad temper. The former is for introducing another assisted suicide bill and the latter is for her performance on Call Kaye this morning when called upon to defend her bill. The fact that Margo lost the rag with someone who opposes her bill clearly demonstrates what an emotive issue this is, and legislating on the basis of emotions is never a good idea, nor is legislating on the basis of a few tragic but unusual cases. Dr Stephen Hutchison of the Highland Hospice is quite right when he highlights the inconsistency of our government trying its hardest to dissuade people from taking their own life on the one hand and yet, now, discussing a bill which would facilitate suicide. Calton is also worried about the fact that, if the new bill becomes law, there will be lethal doses of drugs floating about the community for up to 14 days if not used by the person who has requested them! What sort of training and assessment is going to be given to the "facilitators" who would collect these drugs from the chemist and, presumably, administer them to the patient since this bill is concerned with those who are unable to commit suicide unaided? Whatever the training, the thought that a certain class of people would be able to administer lethal drugs with legal impunity is chilling. Calton does not want to see Scotland go down this route - hopefully our MSPs will agree and boot out this bill, again.

Correction

It seems that Calton was wrong when he said that Margo MacDonald's bills (plural) had some built-in safeguards. Apparently the requirement for an independent psychiatric assessment has been removed in her second attempt to get an assisted suicide bill through the Scottish Parliament. Even more reason to boot it out again.

Your life in their hands?

Calton is very concerned to learn that the Procurator Fiscal decided that it was not in the public interest to prosecute Dr Iain Kerr for helping patients end their own lives by prescribing drugs and giving advice on what constituted a fatal overdose. Although Dr Kerr insisted that the families of the patients concerned be consulted, it is clear that no second medical opinion was sought about whether the patients were in their right mind and not acting under any undue influence - basic safeguards which were included in Margo MacDonald's 2010 End of Life (Assistance) bill. Instead, Dr Kerr seems to have acted as both judge and jury on the patients' mental state. This is extremely dangerous, and the fact that the GMC suspended Dr Kerr for 6 months because his actions were, among other things, "not in your patient's best interest" speaks for itself. Calton does not support Margo's repeated attempts to legalise assisted suicide but he recognises that at least her bills have some built-in safeguards. There is absolutely no place in our society for GPs to be taking the law into their own hands and making such life or death decisions on their own. In Calton's opinion it was very much in the public interest for Dr Kerr to have been prosecuted and the same goes for any other GP thinking of emulating him.

Unassisted suicide

The Church of Scotland is doing a good job of committing suicide without any assistance as it tears itself apart over, first of all, gay ministers, and now, Margo MacDonald's resuscitated end-of-life bill. Calton has already made his views known concerning the latter. Is it too much to ask that the nation's church stands up and speaks with one voice for the weak and vulnerable, not to mention the 6th commandment? Who will take their place if they abdicate that responsibility? Yet again, the argument for assisted suicide seems to be based on feelings rather than rational thought. Margo has said that this is not a moral issue. Has the word 'moral' been redefined recently? Calton would not be surprised, given that our politicians have decided to redefine 'marriage'. Even the Chambers 21st Century Dictionary is not safe from their Orwellian tendencies.

Have we lost our reason?

Calton does not believe that Christians should impose their views or morality on the rest of society, however, in the supposedly progressive rejection of the Judeo-Christian basis of our laws, we are increasingly legislating on the basis of feelings. The latest example is Tony Nicklinson, who feels that his life is intolerable and who wants a change in the law so that someone can kill him without being prosecuted for murder. Other people feel that their lives are not worth living and want the law changed so that they can be assisted to commit suicide. Yet others feel attracted to someone of the same sex and want the law changed to allow them to get married. Calton feels sympathy for all of them but he doesn't think that just because someone feels a certain way, our laws, which have stood the test of time, should be altered. Legislating on the basis of feelings, rather than rational thought, is not progressive but, rather, regressive. Do we really want a society where emotions dominate over reason? Is that not a recipe for disaster?

Open season on Christians at the BBC

Libby Purves is entitled to her opinions on assisted suicide and other matters and she is entitled to air them on Radio Scotland. What she is not entitled to do is label as 'bigots' those who happen to disagree with her. Such ignorant and inflammatory language does nothing to further reasoned and rational debate and Calton is surprised that Kaye Adams let Dr Purves get away with it unchallenged. Maybe he shouldn't be, given that Kaye very quickly stepped in to shut up a caller who was making remarks which might have been offensive to homosexuals recently but let the following caller indulge in an extended rant against Christians without any attempt to curtail him. Yet another example of the open season on Christians at the Biased Broadcasting Corporation, where some are clearly more equal than others when it comes to being protected against offence.

Do not resuscitate

Please, would someone put a 'do not resuscitate' notice on Margo MacDonald's End of Life Assistance bill. It's only been a year or so since it was killed off and here it is, coming back to life again like something in a bad horror movie. If it really meant assistance at the end of life Calton would be all for it, but since it actually means assistance to kill oneself, and not necessarily at the end of one's life, he is opposed to it. He is just not convinced that
a) enough safeguards can be put in place to prevent abuse
b) it will not adversely impact the provision of good palliative care and
c) it is not the start of a slippery slope to full euthanasia.
It would be nice if the bill were to suffer a sudden death, however it looks like being another long-drawn out process, consuming lots of parliamentary time and effort which would be better spent getting justice for the Farepak victims and harpooning loan sharks. If Margo is a reader of this blog, she obviously isn't taking it to heart!

Wanted - Santa for Farepak victims

Calton thinks it is shocking that, more than 5 years later, those who lost money when the Christmas hamper firm Farepak collapsed are still waiting for compensation. Even more worrying is the fact that it could easily happen again since pre-payment schemes such as Farepak are still not covered by legislation. It strikes Calton that this is the sort of thing that Margo MacDonald should be getting involved in, as it disproportionately affects the poorer members of Scottish society. She would benefit a far greater number of people if she tackled this issue as opposed to spending her time trying again to legalise assisted suicide. Come on Margo - be Santa for the Farepak victims this Christmas!