Ruth Davidson has broken down in tears during a live broadcast interview as she opened up about her regrets at opposing the legalisation of assisted suicide.
The former leader of the Scottish Tories, who helped vote down an attempt to legalise the practice in Scotland in 2015, has admitted her decision was motivated by “cowardice”.
On a BBC Radio Scotland phone-in on Monday, she became emotional as she explained she wished she voted in favour of allowing terminally ill people to end their lives on the NHS, due in part to her experience of loved ones suffering from dementia.
Now a member of the House of Lords, where a Bill designed to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales is progressing, she said her experience of IVF, which allowed her to become a mother in 2018, had also motivated the U-turn.
She claimed the choice she had been offered over the “creation of life” had undermined some of the religious objections to allowing people to legally end their own lives.
“It blew apart for me some of the positions that we had, particularly people in religious life, over life being God-given,” the Church of Scotland member said.
“Because you have so much control, just unbelievable amounts of choice that you can make at the beginning of life, and yet you have absolutely no agency over the end of it.”
She broke down as she told of having “a number of people in my life with issues regarding Alzheimer’s and dementia,” which had also played a part in her change of heart.
“If that’s what it is like to have a body that is fine, but a mind that is failing… and dementia is awful, it takes so much from you, it takes a person away from themself… what it would be like to have the counter of that.”
The phone-in host, Kaye Adams, then interjected to tell the 43-year-old, now known as Baroness Davidson of Lundin Links, to “take a minute” as it became clear she was struggling to continue.
She said she “didn’t expect to get upset” and agreed with Ms Adams that it “hits you in the back of the head sometimes” before composing herself.
Baroness Davidson added: “To be able to know what’s going to be facing you tomorrow, and the next day, and to be physically in pain… I think when you look at the situation now, it’s not fair.
“It’s not fair that 300 people in the UK take their own life at home without medical assistance because of the pain that they’re in, because they’re at the end of their own life. It’s not fair that hundreds more try and fail.
“It’s not fair that people who have got £10,000 can make a decision to go to Switzerland but those without £10,000 can’t. That’s not fair.”
