AN outspoken SNP councillor has hit out at a party attempt to restart the debate around Scotland’s assisted dying laws.
Chris McEleny said the plans could make it impossible for a person of faith to remain a member of the SNP.
Yesterday, the Sunday National revealed that Josh Aaron-Mennie, who sits on the party’s National Executive Committee, plans on bringing a motion on assisted suicide to the party’s annual conference next month. McEleny said that this was “simply not compatible to the faith based belief systems of many people in Scotland”.
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He added: “Therefore to adopt a party policy position that is incongruous to the beliefs of many party voters would make continued membership of the party not compatible with their faith.”
He said it would be wrong for “profound matters of conscience such as euthanasia” to be “issues that party positions are taken on”.
Responding, Aaron-Mennie said: “When a person is naturally at the end of their life and suffering in unimaginable pain, how should anyone, regardless of their religion force another person to endure through such circumstances.
“I understand Chris McEleny has his religious views, but this is about increasing people’s rights, not imposing our personal religious views on to others.”
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