by Dr Maureen Sweeney & Fr Charles Coyle

An assisted dying bill was recently proposed in the Scottish Parliament and subsequently voted down on 17 March 2026. It was described by some in the press as one of the most consequential votes of the Parliament’s history. The bill generated a great deal of public interest and extensive media coverage. As you will no doubt remember, all the religious organisations took a position on what was such a significant issue, and the Catholic Church was no different. The Bishop’s Conference of Scotland made a significant contribution to the debate, led by Bishop John Keenan of Paisley, the President of the Bishop’s Conference.

The defeat of this bill should not be seen as a significant victory for religious groups though. Indeed, the concerns of the medical community as outlined by the most recent press release of the Bishops conference (1) played a far more significant role in the defeat of the bill. It is important to point out that if the medical profession had supported the Bill, it would, in all likelihood, have passed into law. However, the consensus statement from the Association for Palliative Medicine (Scotland), Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, Royal College of General Practitioners Scotland, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow, Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society stated that although they take “no collective view on the principle of assisted dying itself, we are unified in our concerns about the legislative process now being proposed” (2) . In effect it is this statement above all others that led to the defeat of this bill.

Dr Maureen Sweeney is a Consultant Anaesthetist & Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer

Fr Charles Coyle is a priest of the Diocese of Motherwell, and Co-ordinator of Pastoral and Spiritual Formation at the St Andrews Foundation for Catholic Teacher Education at the University of Glasgow