COLIN CAMPBELL: Assisted dying can offer the best possible way to depart
Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire MP Angus MacDonald has had the most successful year of his life. He began 2024 as a multi-millionaire and as a Highland councillor, and midway through it upset the political odds by winning in the general election and ousting Drew Hendry from a position which not so long ago looked to be one Mr Hendry might occupy for years ahead.
Our new MP has had a busy first few months and is steadily establishing his credentials with his constituents.
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How well he's adjusted to this whirlwind of activity only he and his family will know. But having made a considerable success of his time on this earth up to now, I doubt if he's had much time or inclination to ponder the circumstances in which he will finally leave it.
However, his role as an MP places on him a range of diverse responsibilities. Next week at Westminster MPs will vote on a bill to introduce "assisted dying" legislation, which would give terminally ill people the right to end their lives. And while with any luck he is a long way from shuffling off his own mortal coil, that is a responsibility Mr MacDonald obviously takes very seriously.
He has publicly stated he will vote against assisted dying. His reasons for doing so he has already outlined in the Courier.
This is a contentious issue but debate around it has generally been low-key and dignified. I disagree with Mr MacDonald but he has his view and I respect it. People have different opinions and in the end, under our parliamentary system, one stance will prevail.
I'm at an age when this becomes of considerably more relevance than when I was a teenager. It's not something to dwell on too much but it does crop up in conversation with those of similar vintage.
And whenever it does, my thoughts always go back to the departure of my father 46 years ago. He suffered the late stage ravages of cancer at home bravely and without complaint, but it was distressing to see a lifelong son of the soil accustomed to being out working every hour of daylight and beyond confined to his bed at home and visibly shrinking with frustration and weakness.
Our local doctor, a man who knew all his patients by name and seemed to be always available for house calls, came to our house on a Saturday night for what was to be the last of many visits. Before his arrival my father was in pain and suffering and it was clearly only a matter of time. After the doctor had left, he was as talkative and full of bright eyed good cheer as he'd ever been in his life. I didn't fully realise it at the time but the doctor had, after talking to my mother and other older relatives, administered a well-judged cocktail of drugs which would bring about only one outcome.
And it was totally and utterly the right thing to do. My father chatted away with us in high spirits for a couple of hours until weariness overtook him, he drifted quietly off to sleep, and a few hours later he was gone.
It was the best possible way to go in the circumstances. But as things stand, would modern-day doctors be able and willing to administer such drugs? Is it even legal?
I ardently hope the assisted dying bill is passed and clarification is delivered on the ways which unnecessary suffering can be avoided at or near the end of life.
Death will always be a distinctly unpleasant prospect. But a clear change in the law to allow assisted dying will mean that many of us perhaps need not fear the circumstances surrounding it quite so much. It's the last choice we'll ever make. And we should not be denied the right to make it.
