MSP behind Scotland's assisted dying bill accepted donations from big pharma linked euthanasia lobby group

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The MSP behind Scotland’s assisted dying bill accepted thousands of pounds from a euthanasia lobby group with links to a tax haven and the US pharmaceutical industry.Lib Dem Liam McArthur’s register of interests reveal he received £35,949 - with Dignity in Dying providing £11,983 of the total - to fund a member of staff to work on his campaign.He was also among a group of MSPs who accepted travel, accommodation and meals worth £2,694 each from Dignity in Dying to travel to California to meet advocates of the state’s End of Life Options Act.Dignity in Dying’s sister charity Compassion in Dying received £300,000 from Church Street Trustees - a secretive firm registered in St Helier on Jersey which was named in the notorious Panama Papers data leak.US Securities Exchange Commission filings show the offshore company is linked to a number of senior business figures and American big pharma interests including NovoCure and Channel Islands firm Volati.McArthur said: “These questions are for Dignity in Dying.

I have no concerns about funding I have received and everything has been registered as required.“What is contained in my Bill would be the most safeguarded model of assisted dying that exists.“At the moment suicide rates among people with a terminal illness are twice as high as those among the population as a whole and we are leaving these people to take matters into their own hands without being able to involve their families and medics.“Then there is a small number with the financial means and mental capacity who are going to Switzerland.“All the evidence shows that if you introduce a terminal illness mental capacity model of assisted dying like the one introduced in Oregon in 1997 which is now in place in about ten states