SCOTTISH MSPs embarked on a rare Friday sitting in Holyrood today in a bid to wade through more than 300 amendments to assisted dying proposals.

The effort came after late sittings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday failed to progress through the amendments ahead of a final vote on Lib Dem MSP Liam McArthur’s controversial Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill next Tuesday.

An amendment has already passed to make clear in the Bill that a person would only be able to seek assistance to take their own life if they were assessed as “reasonably expected” to die within six months.

But significant concerns continue to be raised that it opens the door to coercive control by domestic abusers and fears from disability rights organisations who argue the Bill — allied with the hostile environment they live with — could put lives in danger.

While the Covid pandemic saw virtual meetings on Fridays in April 2020 and a hybrid in January 2021, Friday’s sitting marks the first since October 2000, when a special sessions was called in the wake of the sudden death of Scotland’s first FM, Donald Dewar.