{"id":412,"date":"2010-05-17T16:13:19","date_gmt":"2010-05-17T15:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?p=412"},"modified":"2010-05-17T16:13:19","modified_gmt":"2010-05-17T15:13:19","slug":"age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/","title":{"rendered":"Age and Assisted Death in Scotland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Scottish Parliament recently sought evidence in relation to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scottish.parliament.uk\/s3\/bills\/38-EndLifeAssist\/index.htm\">End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill<\/a>; I responded to that call, and most of what I said would not be new to people who know me, or who read this blog. \u00a0However, I did make a point there that I&#8217;ve not given an outing before; this part of my evidence is reproduced\u00a0below the fold.<\/p>\n<p>(One factor that&#8217;s occurred to me since submitting by evidence, by the way, is that I&#8217;m not sure how much impact\u00a0<em>Gillick<\/em> has under Scottish law.\u00a0 But I think that&#8217;s a minor point.)<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u2022<\/strong><strong> <\/strong><strong>Are you satisfied with the requirements for age and connection with Scotland as set out in the Bill?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The age requirements are potentially problematic.\u00a0 I take it as read that laws have to be workable, and that this means that there are requirements for them to be as simple as possible.\u00a0 Therefore an attempt to draw a \u201cbright line\u201d in respect of age restrictions is perfectly understandable.<\/p>\n<p>However, there are potential objections to placing an age limit at 16.\u00a0 One of these is easily dismissed; the other is not so straightforward.<\/p>\n<p>The easy problem is this: that there may be a child under the age of 16 who satisfies the demands of <em>Gillick<\/em> competence, and who would, in normal circumstances, be considered competent.\u00a0 Why should assisted dying be denied to her?\u00a0 Yet two responses can be made here.\u00a0 The first is that competence tests refer to <em>consent<\/em>, rather than requests.\u00a0 Since a patient would not \u2013 one can assume \u2013 be consenting to a medic\u2019s suggestion of assisted dying, appeals to consent seem to be <em>de trop<\/em>.\u00a0 The second is that, if assisted dying is available as a matter of permit rather than entitlement, it is in the gift of the legislature to allow it or forbid it to whomsoever it pleases.<\/p>\n<p>However, this leads to a more difficult problem.\u00a0 If we accept that a person has the moral right to seek assistance in bringing about their own deaths, and that another person has the moral right to provide it, and if we accept that these moral rights ought to be reflected in law, it is not immediately obvious why there should be a lower age barrier imposed.\u00a0 To insist that Smith has fewer (legal) rights than Jones simply on the basis that Smith is younger looks to be ageist: it makes age do the work of a morally relevant consideration when it is not clear, exactly, what the relevance of age is.\u00a0 It might be that age is felt to be important because of worries about establishing maturity \u2013 but, in this case, it is not clear why the specification in the law could not refer directly to a maturity test of some sort.\u00a0 That is to say: if maturity is what matters, then the law should say so.\u00a0 (I have already noted [elsewhere in my submission, not reproduced here] that the right to provide assistance does not imply a duty to provide it, so any maturity test could be quite demanding, on the assumption that refusing assistance to die to someone who actually is sufficiently mature is preferable to providing it to someone who is not.)\u00a0 Appeals to age on this basis would risk depriving some people of their entitlements without justification.<\/p>\n<p><em>mutatis mutandis<\/em>, the same worries would apply should age be treated as a cipher for any other consideration.\u00a0 In all cases, it\u2019s hard to see why mere chronological age is different from sex or ethnicity; and since we would not think of restricting access to something like end of life assistance to someone based on appeals to sex or ethnicity, it\u2019s not obvious why we think we can restrict access based on appeals to age.<!--TrendMD v2.4.8--><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Scottish Parliament recently sought evidence in relation to the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill; I responded to that call, and most of what I said would not be new to people who know me, or who read this blog. \u00a0However, I did make a point there that I&#8217;ve not given an outing before; [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[591,328,475,1266,472],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-and-death","category-philosophy","category-politics","category-shameless-self-publicity","category-thinking-aloud"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Age and Assisted Death in Scotland - Journal of Medical Ethics blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Age and Assisted Death in Scotland - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Scottish Parliament recently sought evidence in relation to the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill; I responded to that call, and most of what I said would not be new to people who know me, or who read this blog. \u00a0However, I did make a point there that I&#8217;ve not given an outing before; [...]Read More...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-05-17T15:13:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"BMJ\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/17\\\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/17\\\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\"},\"headline\":\"Age and Assisted Death in Scotland\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-17T15:13:19+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/17\\\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":635,\"commentCount\":3,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Life and Death\",\"Philosophy\",\"Politics\",\"Shameless self-publicity\",\"Thinking Aloud\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/17\\\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/17\\\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/17\\\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\\\/\",\"name\":\"Age and Assisted Death in Scotland - Journal of Medical Ethics blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-05-17T15:13:19+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/17\\\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/17\\\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/2010\\\/05\\\/17\\\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Age and Assisted Death in Scotland\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/\",\"name\":\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\",\"description\":\"A blog to discuss the ethics of medicine in its many guises and formats.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/files\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/jme-logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/files\\\/2026\\\/04\\\/jme-logo.png\",\"width\":200,\"height\":50,\"caption\":\"Journal of Medical Ethics blog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe\",\"name\":\"BMJ\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"BMJ\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blogs.bmj.com\\\/medical-ethics\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Age and Assisted Death in Scotland - Journal of Medical Ethics blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Age and Assisted Death in Scotland - Journal of Medical Ethics blog","og_description":"The Scottish Parliament recently sought evidence in relation to the End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill; I responded to that call, and most of what I said would not be new to people who know me, or who read this blog. \u00a0However, I did make a point there that I&#8217;ve not given an outing before; [...]Read More...","og_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/","og_site_name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","article_published_time":"2010-05-17T15:13:19+00:00","author":"BMJ","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"BMJ","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/"},"author":{"name":"BMJ","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe"},"headline":"Age and Assisted Death in Scotland","datePublished":"2010-05-17T15:13:19+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/"},"wordCount":635,"commentCount":3,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Life and Death","Philosophy","Politics","Shameless self-publicity","Thinking Aloud"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/","name":"Age and Assisted Death in Scotland - Journal of Medical Ethics blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-05-17T15:13:19+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/2010\/05\/17\/age-and-assisted-death-in-scotlan\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Age and Assisted Death in Scotland"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/","name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","description":"A blog to discuss the ethics of medicine in its many guises and formats.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#organization","name":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/files\/2026\/04\/jme-logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/files\/2026\/04\/jme-logo.png","width":200,"height":50,"caption":"Journal of Medical Ethics blog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/#\/schema\/person\/ba3da426ed20e8f1d933ca367d8216fe","name":"BMJ","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4d8f39281bcae118348a1c027347b8e53b82d42520e774a8b50dd9a6ac6c01d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"BMJ"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/medical-ethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}