ASSISTED dying proposals are “potentially a lethal weapon” for abusers, experts have warned at Holyrood.

The remarks came in evidence submitted to the Scottish Parliament’s health committee as it examines Lib Dem MSP Liam Arthur’s Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, ahead of a Holyrood vote in the coming weeks.

Writing to the cross-party committee Dr Anni Donaldson, honorary research fellow at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow who specialises in the issue of domestic abuse, and Isabelle Kerr, chief executive of the Beira’s Place support service in Edinburgh for victims of sexual assault, warned the Bill “completely ignores the risks” it presents to those subjected to coercive abuse.