The Scottish Episcopal Institute elicited the perspectives of four Scottish Episcopalians on the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill in November 2024.
Each of the ‘Piskies’ addressed the question, ‘Is the Bill consistent with Christian ethics?’ Their deliberations around the Bill may be found in a single audio file here or a single document here.
The first speaker is the Reverend Canon Professor David Jasper, who has been an Anglican priest for almost fifty years and has served in the Scottish Episcopal Church as Convener of the Doctrine Committee, Canon Theologian of St Mary’s Cathedral in Glasgow, and priest-in-charge of a number of Episcopal churches in South Glasgow. He is Professor Emeritus of the University of Glasgow where he served as Professor of Theology and Literature. David is an Honorary Associate Professor of the University of Edinburgh.
The second speaker is Dr Simon Evans, who is a recently retired Consultant in Respiratory and General Medicine from Raigmore Hospital in Inverness. He was previously a Consultant at Portsmouth Teaching Hospitals and Associate Dean of Southampton Medical School as well as holding academic posts at Manchester and Nottingham Universities. Simon attends St Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Newlands near Glasgow and is a Lay Eucharistic Minister.
The third speaker is the Reverend Dr Claire Nicholson, who is Assistant Curate at Holy Trinity Scottish Episcopal Church in Melrose in the Scottish Borders. She is a consultant neurosurgeon at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Her subspecialist interests include paediatric and adult spina bifida, movement disorders, and skull-base tumours. Claire has been involved in postgraduate medical education for many years.
The fourth and final speaker is the Reverend Canon Professor Michael Hull, who is a priest of the Scottish Episcopal Church in the Diocese of Edinburgh. He currently serves as the Principal of the Scottish Episcopal Institute in Edinburgh and the Institute’s Pantonian Professor of Divinity. He sits on the Scottish Episcopal Church’s Faith and Order Board, and is an Assistant Priest at St Vincent’s Chapel in Edinburgh.
