Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur today , publishes his Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill.

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Liam McArthur today  (Thursday 28th March), publishes his Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill.

Transcript

00:00 Hello, I'm Alistair Grant, the Political Editor of the Scotsman and I'm here in the Garden

00:08 Lobby of the Scottish Parliament where the Liberal Democrat MSP Lee McArthur has been

00:13 launching his bill to legalise assisted dying for terminally ill and mentally competent

00:18 adults. It's been a bill that's been talked about for a long time, it's been in the headlines

00:22 before, we've covered it quite widely in the Scotsman, but it's been officially introduced

00:26 now, you can see the full published bill. It's not without controversy, there are those

00:30 who oppose it, those who worry about the so-called slippery slope, but Lee McArthur argues that

00:35 the bill contains the necessary safeguards. We spoke to him just a few minutes ago alongside

00:40 other journalists to hear more about the bill.

00:42 Well I think it's important to point out that 128 MSPs will have a vote on this, I need

00:49 to persuade a majority of them. I've had many discussions with Humza Yousaf, I welcome the

00:56 fact that he's been open to those discussions, I realise that he's not yet persuaded. I will

01:00 do what I can to bring him round to the belief that this is a change in the law we need to

01:06 see, but I welcome the fact that he, as the other party leaders have done, have recognised

01:12 this is a vote of conscience, it needs to be a free vote for his colleagues and that's

01:17 what I expect to happen.

01:19 We'll be interviewing him for the Scotsman's podcast, the Steamy, later on this afternoon.

01:24 You can listen to the Steamy on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.

01:29 You can also watch the video of that interview on the Scotsman's website.

01:32 [Music]