Colin Campbell: After so many failings, MSPs must get this decision right
It was genuinely surprising to see that MSPs at Holyrood will have the final say on whether or not "assisted dying" becomes legal in Scotland. From its hallowed corridors and debating chamber have emerged the grossly overpriced and endlessly delayed ferries fiasco, the gender self-ID fiasco, the A9 upgrading fiasco, the deposit return scheme fiasco, at local level the Inverness Prison fiasco, and now what’s well on its way to becoming the latest, the emerging "hate crimes" fiasco.
And many of those involved in this litany of failure are to make a decisive ruling on a monumentally important issue of life and death?
That will not happen until next year, and between now and then there will be much impassioned debate across society involving people who are much better informed and more credible in speaking out than those on the Holyrood benches.
Esther Rantzen, who brightened up many a Sunday night across the nation with "That’s Life” in the 1980s, is the most vocal proponent of assisted dying. In her 80s, and suffering from terminal illness, she did not expect to see last Christmas. Her continuing fortitude is admirable.
And inevitably thoughts on this will bring back memories of those who were around on those distant Sunday nights and who are no longer around now. One very close relative of mine passed away peacefully aged 90 in an Inverness nursing home. Another very close relative died in 1978, and looking back, that was very different.
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For four months he endured, very bravely and without complaint, the suffering and ravages of cancer. But it was an ordeal. On the day before he died I was a young reporter scribbling down notes with a photographer at a popular Highland games. It was in its way a welcome distraction. In the evening I saw my relative in his bed at his home, where he'd been throughout his illness.
Though very pale and hollow cheeked, he was sitting up in bed as lively and as talkative as we'd seen him. His eyes were bright and conversation flowed from him. He was happy, very happy. For two or three hours he chatted, laughed and joked. Then he became quieter, rested his head on the pillow, and fell asleep. By morning he was gone.
With a doctor present, back then that night it may well have been decided that the end was near and that every effort should be made to make it as free from pain and suffering as possible, through medication. From that point on, a quick and early death was probably inevitable. I vividly remember a cheerful final night and it was absolutely the right decision to make.
Is that still permissible now? If so, why do we hear distressing and harrowing accounts from people of their loved ones "dying in agony".
Most of us have only our own limited knowledge and experiences to go by. But from what I've seen the absolute priority should be giving people the right to spend their final hours in a happy frame of mind rather than any grim and awful alternative.
It's not perhaps something to spend an excessive amount of time thinking about, although it certainly merits due consideration. But in a situation of dire suffering with no chance of any way out of it, I unequivocally would want my final hours to be pain free, relaxed and content, similar to my relative all those years ago. Isn’t that the basic and understandable wish of most people? And if "assisted dying" is required in these circumstances to bring that about, people should for the very last time get all the assistance that they need.
