After section 48A

Part of Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Bill: Stage 3 – in the Scottish Parliament at 5:15 pm on 29 March 2000.

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Photo of Dorothy-Grace Elder Dorothy-Grace Elder Independent 5:15, 29 March 2000

I make a plea for absolute clarity, which the amendment provides.

We must bear in mind the fact that the bill, which we will pass—or not—today, will last not for months but for years, perhaps for decades. We are committing future generations to this legislation, which is about the most vulnerable members of our society.

Everyone of some experience in life knows that one should avoid going to law—to civil law especially—as much as possible because of the cost and the strain. Civil law has been adequately described by a judge in England as open to everyone in the same way as the Ritz hotel is open to everyone. Dickens said that the law is a beast, which feeds on human misery. As a result of the decisions that are about to be made, there could be much human misery in the years and months ahead, after the bill becomes an act.

We must think of the circumstances under which decisions will be made, perhaps in a great hurry. We must think of the act being referred to not in pleasant circumstances, but in fraught ones, perhaps in the back office of a hospital.

It cannot be spelled out clearly enough that the protection of human life—exceedingly vulnerable human life—must come first. The amendment does that and I support it.