THE Archbishop of Wales, the Most Revd Andrew John, and the Bench of Bishops have joined other religious leaders in Wales to oppose a forthcoming Private Member’s Bill to legalise assisted dying.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, from the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, is to be debated next Friday. MPs will be given a free vote. The Bill, which was published last week, seeks to allow life-ending medical help for terminally ill adults who have no more than six months to live, in England and Wales (News, 18 October, 25 October; Leader comment and Press, 11 October).
In a joint statement, published on Tuesday, 16 religious leaders write: “As people of faith, we share a common heritage of caring for the vulnerable, the sick and dying. This is why we feel we must speak together against the proposed legislation. Compassion is at the heart of all the Great World Religions. Life is sacred.”
They urge “all people of goodwill” to write to their MP in opposition, “because the proposals for physician-assisted suicide are not just contrary to the dignity and sanctity of life, they pose grave dangers to vulnerable people”.
The statement is also signed by the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff-Menevia, the Rt Revd Mark O’Toole, and representatives of Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh communities.
It warns: “If the Bill becomes law . . . the most vulnerable can no longer presume on the balance of healthcare being in their favour. The criteria for assisted suicide [has] become widened to include groups of people who need society’s help rather than assistance in ending their lives.”
The debate marked “a very serious moment for our country” and raised “serious questions about what sort of society we want to be. Especially of concern is whether we will continue to promote a proper care of the dying, and of those who are vulnerable through disability or age.”
A similar statement was issued last Friday by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales. “We believe that genuine compassion is under threat because of the attempts in Parliament to legalise assisted suicide,” it said.
“We appeal to those who share our Catholic belief in human dignity and sanctity of life, including fellow Christians, other religious people, and people of reason and good will, to join with us in defending the weakest and most vulnerable who are at risk through this proposed legislation.”
The statement, like others in opposition, calls, first, for “more adequate funding and resources for hospices and palliative-care teams. . . They [the terminally ill] need compassionate care, not assistance to end their lives.”
Furthermore, it argues, the Bill would “fundamentally damage the relationship between medical practitioners and their patients. It will potentially lead to pressure on medical staff to recommend or facilitate such procedures.”
In a statement also published on Tuesday, the Territorial Leader of the Salvation Army, Commissioner Paul Main, said that the Bill, as published, contained “fundamental flaws”.
“Everyone should have the chance of a dignified death. We are gravely concerned that the Bill is weighted in favour of those with better access to care, health resources, and support networks.”
The Bill did not, he said, “properly protect vulnerable people from coercion, and there are no proper safeguards to check one’s capacity to make informed decisions about their final days”.
An accompanying statement says that coercion or pressure is not defined in the Bill, which deals only with “individual” coercion or pressure. Social coercion, for reasons such as limited resources, should be considered, the statement says. Establishing mental capacity is a “costly and time-consuming process for statutory bodies which are already under pressure”, and “It is a mockery of human dignity to talk about giving people choices in dying while they are denied choices in living.”
There is also the “slippery slope” of extending the scope of assisted dying further once the Bill is legalised, the statement argues.
On Wednesday, the two longest-serving MPs, Diane Abbott (Labour) and Sir Edward Leigh (Conservative), in a joint statement, urged the Commons to reject Bill.
Writing in The Guardian, they agreed with others that the Bill was being rushed through, and that the focus should instead be on improving health- and palliative-care services. The gap of 18 days between the Bill’s publication and the debate was too short, they wrote.
“There is more than a suspicion that the pressure groups behind this proposed change have sought to take advantage of an inexperienced new parliament.”
The General Synod has declared the Church of England’s opposition to assisted dying (News, 15 July 2022), and many bishops have publicly expressed this view since the Bill was first proposed (News, 15 November).
Writing on the community website Network Norwich this week, the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, said that the Bill “asks us deep questions about death. It needs to be a serious and sensitive debate. It is a hugely emotive topic and not all of us will agree on this matter.”
He expresses four main concerns: the experience of countries which have legalised assisted dying, the affect on the most vulnerable, “the lack of time the Bill has had for scrutiny, and what a change in the law would say about the value of human life”.
Bishop Usher encourages everyone to talk, read, and pray about these issues.
The Church Times and Modern Church will be hosting a webinar on assisted dying on Thursday 28 November at 6 p.m. Tickets are £10, or £5 for subscribers.