{"id":661766,"date":"2025-12-30T05:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T05:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/661766\/"},"modified":"2025-12-30T05:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T05:05:11","slug":"paisley-msp-george-adam-speaks-out-on-his-support-for-assisted-dying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/661766\/","title":{"rendered":"Paisley MSP George Adam speaks out on his support for assisted dying"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n George Adam, the MSP for Paisley<\/a>, said that legislation progressing through Holyrood<\/a> to allow terminally ill Scots to seek help to end their lives is \u201cextremely personal\u201d to him and his wife Stacey.\n<\/p>\n

\n The couple, who have been married for 29 years, have long supported the idea of allowing those who are facing a painful death to seek help to die, with Mr Adam having formed the Cross-Party Group on End of Life Choices at Holyrood.\n<\/p>\n

\n Mrs Adam meanwhile is a patron of Friends at the End \u2013 a charity which campaigns for assisted dying to be legalised.\n<\/p>\n

\n She also suffers from four chronic medical conditions, having been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) at the age of 16, as well as suffering from asthma, high blood pressure and osteoporosis.\n<\/p>\n

\n While the couple, who have two children and four grandchildren, both support Liam McArthur\u2019s bill to allow terminally ill Scots to seek help to die<\/a>, Mr Adam said he did not know if he would \u201cever be strong enough\u201d for his wife to take this option.\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/p>\n

\n In an emotional speech at Holyrood, the MSP said: \u201cStacey and I support Liam McArthur\u2019s Bill, not because it\u2019s about us now, but because one day it might be.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe hope that time never comes but if it does, if the suffering becomes unbearable, Stacey should have that right to choose how her life ends with dignity, with compassion and surrounded by those who love her.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n But he added: \u201cI don\u2019t know if I would ever be strong enough.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s alright me talking about, and it all seems very academic, even though I\u2019m bubbling in the chamber when I\u2019m talking about it.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cBut I don\u2019t know if I could let go at that point, because my life changed the day I met Stacey.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s not a case that MS is going to kill Stacey, it is more likely to be with her compromised immune system something else she will get, she is more likely to get conditions that would end up being part of this bill.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n The SNP<\/a> MSP, who has previously served as parliamentary business minister in the Scottish Government, argued that when people have a long-term medical condition where they are \u201cinevitably going to die, why would we want to put them through that extra pain and suffering\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n He added: \u201cI don\u2019t want Stacey to ever go through that, should that ever happen.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n But he stated: \u201cWe\u2019ve not made up our minds that if that was the case, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve made that decision.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n His wife meanwhile said they were \u201cnowhere near that\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n However she insisted assisted dying should be an \u201coption\u201d for people suffering from terminal illnesses, arguing that the conditions setting out who would qualify for such help are \u201cstrict\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n The legislation would require people to have two independent doctors certify they have an advanced, terminal illness \u2013 and that they also have the mental capacity to request an assisted death.\n<\/p>\n

\n Mrs Adam added she is \u201cdisappointed\u201d some politicians opposed to the proposals have \u201ctwisted\u201d the debate to \u201csuit their means\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n She stressed the proposed legislation is only for those with terminal illnesses, saying: \u201cIt doesn\u2019t say if you are disabled, it doesn\u2019t say if you are old, it says terminally ill. And of a sane mind.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Mrs Adam added that the bill \u201cis to give people the option to do this with no hurt or pain for the family\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n Challenging other MSPs to back McArthur\u2019s bill, she added: \u201cIf you\u2019re not for it fine, that\u2019s your opinion, that\u2019s your choice. Other folk in your constituency might be for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Adam, the MSP for Paisley, said that legislation progressing through Holyrood to allow terminally ill Scots to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7826],"tags":[748,918,4884,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-661766","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-glasgow","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-glasgow","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-scotland","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115806779601138416","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}