Ian Galloway calls for the debate to widen

Ian Galloway, the Convener of the Church and Society council has called for a widening of the debate on assisted suicide to include issues of palliative care. This is in response to the fact that the Assisted Suicide Scotland Bill failed to reach the required vote at the Scottish Parliament. Margo MacDonald, the proponent of the bill, agreed with Mr. Galloway that the debate mucst also include the provision for palliative care.

Fresh hope for severely brain damaged patients

Thanks to functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) Dr. Owen a neuro-scientist from Cambridge University has been able to communicate with a patient who had been previously considered to be in a vegetative state. Although the equipment is not portable and cannot be used for frequent communication it seems that even when people seem to be locked into vegetative states, it is possible through suitable technology to communicate with them. This opens up again fresh avenues of research into what is meant by "quality of life". Surely if a person can communicate, even through a machine, we can no longer state that the person is in a "vegetative state". Read more about this by following the link Fresh hope for severely brain damaged patients.

Protests outside the Scottish Parliament

Protesters against the proposed end -of -life bill gathered aoutside the Scottish Parliament. This protest was particularly poignant becuase  it was organised by dissabled people who see the proposed bill as eroding their right to life. This was taking place as debates within parliament were addressing the same issues. It was wonderful to witness the agency with which individulas irrespective of their dissability were fully engaged in exercising their civic rights.  For a short film about the protest, please follow this link.

The opinion polls on Assisted Suicide

Dr Calum MacKellar, Director of Research at the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics has written a letter to The Herald, explaining the danger that leading opinion polls can have in swaying public opinion in Scotland in favour of the assisted suicide bill proposed by Margo MacDonald. According to Dr. MacKellar, the results of the polls are contradictory and do not consitute a basis for ammendment of legislation. Follow this link to read the full letter.