Public opinion

Overwhelming public support for law change

We commissioned the largest poll ever conducted on assisted dying, which shows:

• Every single constituency supports law change
• More than three-quarters of respondents (78%) said that they would support making it lawful for someone to seek assisted dying in Scotland, with just 15% against

Your local data

Search using the map below to find the level of support in your constituency:

The polling was carried out by Opinium Research on behalf of Dignity in Dying Scotland, and canvassed the views of more than 4000 people across the country. 78% said they would support a change in the law to allow dying adults to access assisted dying.

The polling also found:

• Support for changing the law was consistently high across those who plan to vote SNP (84%), Conservative (72%), Labour (79%), Green (81%) and Liberal Democrat (78%).
• Strong support for law change among religious people, with 75% of people who align themselves with Church of Scotland/England and 66% of those who state they are Catholic in favour.
• More than half of Scots (55%) would personally consider travelling to Switzerland for an assisted death if they were terminally ill, but 57% would not be able to afford it, with costs skyrocketing to £15,000 in the last five years.

About this data

The polling quoted above was conducted by Opinium. Polling results from 4132 adults in Scotland, fieldwork conducted between 9th Feb and 15th March 2024 and subjected to MRP (multi-level regression and post-stratification) analysis.

The full breakdown of region and constituency level data can be found here:

Constituencies:

Do you support legalising assisted dying?

How affordable is the average £15,000 cost of assisted dying in Switzerland?

Regions:

Do you support legalising assisted dying?

How affordable is the average £15,000 cost of assisted dying in Switzerland?