AS THE assisted-dying Bill makes its way through Parliament (it returns to the House of Commons for the Report Stage today), religious groups, including bishops in the House of Lords, are trying to ensure that their voices are heard. Those voices tend to be overwhelmingly opposed to any change in the law.
When the Bill was introduced into the House of Commons in October (News, 18 October 2024), Archbishop Welby told the BBC: “There will be people who look [at the opposition from the Church] and say the Church is totally out of touch, that they totally disagree with us, and say they are going nowhere near a church, but we don’t do things on the basis of opinion polls.”
He was, perhaps, referring to the results of various polls of the general population taken over the past year or so, which showed that about 70 per cent would support a change in the law. This is the general population; so they may not reflect the opinion of religious groups. When the General Synod voted in 2022 on a motion calling for the law to remain as it is, 289 were in favour, 25 were against, and 33 recorded abstentions (News, 15 July 2022). They were, it seemed, overwhelmingly opposed to changing the law, although someone pointed out that one in six members felt that they could not support the motion.
It is possible that the Synod is not fully representative of the Church as a whole, but finding out where opinion lies across the Church is not easy. Some might say that it does not matter anyway, because this is a matter of deep theological principle; even if the rest of society moves, we will always hold to our principles — something that was probably assumed (if not expressed) about the ordination of women, marriage after divorce, and same-sex relationships.
Experience suggests that it may be good to know how opinions are shaped across the Church: what do people think, and what shapes their opinions? Is the current Bill is the right change to the law? Should the law be changed anyway?
WE LAUNCHED the Church 2024 survey in March last year, and it ran until November. We collected more than 5000 responses, including more than 3230 from clergy and lay people in the Church of England. We reported some interim results on attitudes towards assisted dying (Comment, 30 August 2024), and, now that the full results are in, it is worth reflecting on what they say about where the Church stands on this issue.
The final results show the same trends as emerged earlier. Overall, 52 per cent were against allowing assisted dying, 28 per cent were in favour, and 21 per cent were uncertain. Opposition may be on practical grounds — 67 per cent, for example, believed that the risk of abuse was too great — but also on theological grounds: 46 per cent agreed that taking your own life was wrong, and 53 per cent that only God could give and take life.
The variation in opinion across groups is striking. In terms of being in favour of allowing assisted dying, 32 per cent of women agreed, but only 23 per cent of men; 34 per cent of those aged 70 or more agreed, but only 19 per cent of the under-50s; 33 per cent of those in rural areas, compared with 26 per cent of those living elsewhere; 13 per cent of Evangelicals, compared with 33 per cent of other traditions; 34 per cent of the laity, compared with 19 per cent of the clergy.
The first Church Times survey, in 2001, gave evidence of the way in which the Church of England was fragmenting on issues such as women priests and divorce. This survey shows how a new issue, assisted dying, may also divide opinion in the years ahead.
One advantage of the sort of detailed survey work that the Church 2024 survey entailed is that it allows more robust analysis of the data, which can point to why people might hold the opinions that they do. In this instance, we looked at the influence of demographic factors, such as sex and age, psychological dispositions, contextual factors such as education and marital status, and ecclesial factors such as ordination, tradition, and basic beliefs.
The results showed that the most immediate influences on attitude were underlying belief systems, such as how generally liberal or conservative people were when it came to doctrine or morality. Our basic stance on these things predicts how we are likely to see the particular issue of assisted dying. These “downstream” factors are, however, shaped by some more “upstream” factors, such as our tradition, our age, and how we operate psychologically. Who we are and the traditions that we inhabit partly shape our general leanings toward liberalism or conservatism. This, in turn, could shape what we feel about the assisted-dying debate.
DOES this tell us much and help us with this issue? To be sure, we may want to ignore all this statistical stuff and stick to our guns. But what are those guns, and why are we pointing them in this particular direction? Is opposition to assisted dying a deeply rooted Christian principle on which the Church must not be swayed? If so, we may need to work out why, and have a better answer than “We shouldn’t do it because it may weaken palliative care.”
If our opposition is mainly pragmatic, what is our theology of assisted suicide? When assisted dying becomes legal, and surely it will, we need to do better than we have on past issues where society has moved, and we eventually followed. Can we understand not just what we believe, but why we might believe that? And can that help us to discern better what God would have us do?
The Revd Andrew Village is Professor Emeritus, and Canon Leslie J. Francis is Visiting Professor, at York St John University.
Read a more detailed treatment of these data in the Journal of Anglican Studies here.