Almost eight out of ten Scots support plans to legalise assisted suicide, a survey has revealed.

Independent MSP Margo MacDonald is hoping to change the law to make Scotland the first part of the UK where doctors can legally help patients to die.

The survey found 77% of Scots agreed people with "intolerable terminal illnesses" should have the option of being helped to end their life, if they wished to do so.

Just 12% said they did not agree with this, while 11% of respondents said they did not know.

A total of 1,001 Scots were questioned for the survey, which was carried out in April.

Ms MacDonald released the findings of the poll, carried out by Angus Reid Public Opinion, ahead of a crucial vote in Holyrood on her proposals on Thursday November 25.

Opposed

The proposals in the Lothian MSP's End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill are opposed by doctors' leaders and religious groups.

However Ms MacDonald said today: "I've got what they don't have, and that is proof of public support for the measures in the Bill.

"Seventy-seven percent of the general population appear to support the principles of the Bill.

"I think MSPs should be at least as much influenced by the show of public support we can muster in this opinion poll as they are by the church campaign."

She also insisted that "at least one" Scottish Government minister supported her proposals, and claimed she had some support within the religious and medical communities.

"I know of many doctors, I know of any number of clergymen who support this Bill," she said.
"That has kept me confident in what it is I am trying to do."

MSPs on the Holyrood committee that has been scrutinising her proposals said last week the were "not persuaded the case had been made" for assisted suicide.

But Ms MacDonald claims there is a "huge campaign being brought to bear" on both MSPs and others who might support her.

She is, however, being publicly backed by some politicians - with Liberal Democrat Jeremy Purvis, Nationalist Bill Kidd and Green Robin Harper all joining her at a press conference on Tuesday.

Ms MacDonald said she hoped those MSPs who vote in favour of her Bill would not suffer a backlash from voters.

She said backing her Bill should not be a "deal-breaker" for most of the public, adding: "The only people who will condition their vote on the outcome of the legislation I propose are a very small number of people of faith, and they've got every entitlement to decide their vote on that if it is that important to them.

"But I think for the majority of the general public it is not a deal-breaker."

Similarly Mr Purvis, who proposed similar legislation in 2005, said politicians should "not be fearful" of backing the Bill.

He said: "Because this is an issue of conscience, if you outline that to people, I am sure more people that will give you respect."

Affected

Mr Purvis also said assisted suicide was an issue that affected many families, adding: "There are few issues where as an MSP you are stopped in the street by people just to talk about an issue, and this is one of them."

Mr Purvis also told how a local councillor who had inspired him to enter politics had told him how he "wanted control of his own life" while he was terminally ill in hospital.

The MSP recalled: "He was a very religious man and he wanted that control in the last fortnight of his life, because he knew he was dying, there was no question he was dying, and he wanted that control.

"What I would like for MSPs who don't support this to be able to address is, for someone who has had control over their own life for all of their life, why should it be in the last week he is told he can't have that control."

Mr Purvis added: "This Bill will help people and it will make the country a more humane country."

Meanwhile Mr Harper said: "I have backed the progress of this Bill from the beginning, and will continue to do so.

"Polling indicates that more than three-quarters of Scots share this view, and Parliament must vote this week to keep working on Margo's proposals."

And Mr Kidd said he would like to see Ms MacDonald's Bill become law, but he said that was "something that can only happen when we have a proper, open debate".