Jeremy Purvis publishes responses to Scottish ‘Dying with Dignity’ Consultation

1st July 2005

MSP Jeremy Purvis has now published the responses to his consultation on his ‘Dying with Dignity’ Consultation. It is reported on his website that, ‘Jeremy has now completed a summary analysis of the record number of people who responded to his consultation. Over 600 people and organisations submitted their views and it has taken time to ensure that each response received full consideration. 56% of the responses were in favour and 33% were opposed.’

Dr Peter Kiehlmann comments as follows:

‘Today P&J reported “MSP says half of Scots support the right to die” in a banner headline. This is blatant mis-information. From his website it seems that he is counts each submission singly despite the fact that many submissions are from large groups who spent significant time in considering the issue. These include the Royal College of GPs (2,943 individual GP members), the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care (53 member organizations representing thousands of individuals), the British Geriatric Society Scotland and to quote from Mr Purvis’ website many ‘Religious Organisations’ - Twenty eight submissions were placed in this category. Responses came from many of the major faith denominations in Scotland including Christian, Catholic, Jewish, Mormon and Baha’i. They also included responses from the Christian Medical Fellowship, the Nurses’ Christian Fellowship of Glasgow, one member of the Guild of Catholic Doctors, and a personal response from the Chairman of the Lawyers Christian Fellowship.’

The full report is available in word and pdf format at www.jeremypurvis.org/consultation1.htm. Specific urls are:

The original consultation document is at www.jeremypurvis.org/resources/Dying with Dignity Consultation paper.pdf.