{"id":275695,"date":"2022-09-10T09:37:49","date_gmt":"2022-09-10T14:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=275695"},"modified":"2023-11-06T19:32:17","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T01:32:17","slug":"officials-nullify-thousands-objections-public-suicide-scotland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/officials-nullify-thousands-objections-public-suicide-scotland\/","title":{"rendered":"Group cries foul as officials nullify thousands of public objections to Scotland assisted suicide bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>(<a href=\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation\">Right to Life UK<\/a>)\u00a03,526 submissions from members of the public to the consultation on Liam McArthur\u2019s assisted suicide Bill has been removed, resulting in calls for the Scottish Government to conduct an urgent independent review of the handling of the consultation process.<\/p>\n<p>Liam McArthur conducted a consultation on his assisted suicide Bill that closed on 22 December 2021, with the results of the consultation released\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.assisteddying.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Assisted-dying-consultation-summary-FINAL-DRAFT.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">today<\/a>. The consultation\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.assisteddying.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Assisted-dying-consultation-summary-FINAL-DRAFT.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">report<\/a>\u00a0outlined that Liam McArthur has chosen to remove all consultation submissions from members of the public who were mobilised to make a submission through a campaign run by Right To Life UK, which encouraged members of the public to submit to the consultation.<\/p>\n<p>Right To Life UK\u2019s internal systems show that 3,526 submissions to the consultation were made from members of the public off the back of the campaign, all opposing assisted suicide, and the consultation<a href=\"https:\/\/www.assisteddying.scot\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/Assisted-dying-consultation-summary-FINAL-DRAFT.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0states that all submissions made off the back of that campaign were removed.<\/p>\n<p>These submissions were made by members of the public who provided all the contact details that the consultation required to be included with each individual submission.<\/p>\n<p>The largest assisted suicide lobby group in the country,\u00a0<em>Dignity in Dying<\/em>, also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dignityindyingscotland.org.uk\/take-action\/scotlands-assisted-dying-bill-consultation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">mobilised<\/a>\u00a0supporters to submit to the consultation, but there is no mention in the report of removing submissions from members of the public who were mobilised to submit by that campaign.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/scotland-doctors-opposes-suicide\/\">Doctors group in Scotland refuses to participate in assisted suicide if legalized<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The consultation report claims that all the submissions mobilised by the Right To Life UK campaign were removed because some of them used either identical or similar language when describing their opposition to assisted suicide. There was no mention when the consultation launched that if submissions used similar language, they would be removed, along with all other submissions that were mobilised by a given campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Right To Life UK spokesperson, Catherine Robinson, said: \u201cMembers of the public made submissions to the consultation off the back of a campaign we ran to mobilise people to submit to the consultation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLiam McArthur appears to have rigged the outcome of the consultation by removing all 3,526 submissions made off the back of this campaign. Funnily enough, all these submissions opposed his Bill, but when it came to submissions mobilised by pro-assisted suicide organisations that supported this bill, they were not removed\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the type of tactic one would expect to see used in a crackpot dictatorship where elections are rigged; instead we see a Scottish politician using it to rig a consultation so that he can claim there is more support for the Bill than there really is\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are calling on the Scottish Government to urgently undertake an independent review of the handling of this consultation and ensure that all members of the public who made their voices heard through making a submission are included in the results of this consultation, regardless of their stance on assisted suicide\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Right to Life UK)\u00a03,526 submissions from members of the public to the consultation on Liam McArthur\u2019s assisted suicide Bill has been removed, resulting in calls for the Scottish Government to conduct an urgent independent review of the handling of the consultation process. Liam McArthur conducted a consultation on his assisted suicide Bill that closed on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":669,"featured_media":255622,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077,5,11],"tags":[6982],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Group cries foul as officials nullify thousands of public objections to Scotland assisted suicide bill<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Liam McArthur removed over 3000 consultation submissions from the public sent by Right to Life UK but seems to have kept others sent by pro-suicide groups.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Group cries foul as officials nullify thousands of public objections to Scotland assisted suicide bill\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Liam McArthur removed over 3000 consultation submissions from the public sent by Right to Life UK but seems to have kept others sent by pro-suicide groups.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-10T14:37:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-11-07T01:32:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1074235316-scotland-flag.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"515\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Right to Life UK\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Right to Life UK\" \/>\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:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/officials-nullify-thousands-objections-public-suicide-scotland\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Right to Life UK\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/150f7162a1227b6c017d7c5a195741fb\"},\"headline\":\"Group cries foul as officials nullify thousands of public objections to Scotland assisted suicide bill\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-10T14:37:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-07T01:32:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/officials-nullify-thousands-objections-public-suicide-scotland\/\"},\"wordCount\":514,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Scotland\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Guest Column\",\"International\",\"Politics\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/officials-nullify-thousands-objections-public-suicide-scotland\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation\",\"name\":\"Group cries foul as officials nullify thousands of public objections to Scotland assisted suicide bill\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-10T14:37:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-11-07T01:32:17+00:00\",\"description\":\"Liam McArthur removed over 3000 consultation submissions from the public sent by Right to Life UK but seems to have kept others sent by pro-suicide groups.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Group cries foul as officials nullify thousands of public objections to Scotland assisted suicide bill\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/150f7162a1227b6c017d7c5a195741fb\",\"name\":\"Right to Life UK\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ee6bbdc4cbe7693ee7cbacf0cff9e7c5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ee6bbdc4cbe7693ee7cbacf0cff9e7c5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Right to Life UK\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/right-to-life-uk\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Group cries foul as officials nullify thousands of public objections to Scotland assisted suicide bill","description":"Liam McArthur removed over 3000 consultation submissions from the public sent by Right to Life UK but seems to have kept others sent by pro-suicide groups.","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:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Group cries foul as officials nullify thousands of public objections to Scotland assisted suicide bill","og_description":"Liam McArthur removed over 3000 consultation submissions from the public sent by Right to Life UK but seems to have kept others sent by pro-suicide groups.","og_url":"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2022-09-10T14:37:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-11-07T01:32:17+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":515,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/GettyImages-1074235316-scotland-flag.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Right to Life UK","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Right to Life UK","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/officials-nullify-thousands-objections-public-suicide-scotland\/"},"author":{"name":"Right to Life UK","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/150f7162a1227b6c017d7c5a195741fb"},"headline":"Group cries foul as officials nullify thousands of public objections to Scotland assisted suicide bill","datePublished":"2022-09-10T14:37:49+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-07T01:32:17+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/officials-nullify-thousands-objections-public-suicide-scotland\/"},"wordCount":514,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["Scotland"],"articleSection":["Guest Column","International","Politics"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/officials-nullify-thousands-objections-public-suicide-scotland\/","url":"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation","name":"Group cries foul as officials nullify thousands of public objections to Scotland assisted suicide bill","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-09-10T14:37:49+00:00","dateModified":"2023-11-07T01:32:17+00:00","description":"Liam McArthur removed over 3000 consultation submissions from the public sent by Right to Life UK but seems to have kept others sent by pro-suicide groups.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/rigged-consultation-3526-submissions-opposing-assisted-suicide-removed-from-scottish-assisted-suicide-consultation#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Group cries foul as officials nullify thousands of public objections to Scotland assisted suicide bill"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/150f7162a1227b6c017d7c5a195741fb","name":"Right to Life UK","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ee6bbdc4cbe7693ee7cbacf0cff9e7c5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ee6bbdc4cbe7693ee7cbacf0cff9e7c5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Right to Life UK"},"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/right-to-life-uk\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275695"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/669"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":275696,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275695\/revisions\/275696"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}