Independent MSP Margo MacDonald launched her bid to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland yesterday.

The End of Life Choices Bill proposed by Ms MacDonald, who has Parkinson’s disease, would make Scotland the first place in the UK where anyone over the age of 16 could request help to die.

“Dying is part of living, it’s the last act of your life, and if we accept the responsibility of how we live our lives, then I really fail to see where there is any demarcation of how we should die,” the MSP said yesterday.

The controversial bill was signed by 21 MSPs from all four main parties in the parliament and will now be investigated by the health and sport committee before MSPs vote on it for the first time later this year.

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A British Humanist Association spokeswoman said people have a “fundamental right” to choose when to die.

She said, “Being able to die, with dignity, in a manner of our choosing must be understood to be a fundamental human right.

“Legalising assisted dying would ensure strict legal safeguards are in place, which would empower people to use their right to make rational choices over their end-of-life care, free of coercion.”

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/output/2010/01/22/newsstory14426184t0.asp