THE Bishops of London and Southwark, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally and the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, urged MPs to reject current proposals to a change in the law on assisted dying, on the eve of a key debate in the House of Commons.
MPs are due to vote on the Third Reading of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, on Friday, after it completed the Report Stage.
The Bill was “unsafe and unworkable”, Bishop Mullaly, who is a former Chief Nursing Officer, said in a statement published on Thursday. “If enacted, this Bill would arrive amidst hugely inequitable access to palliative care and an NHS on life-support.
“The potential for abuse and uninformed or coerced decisions is enormous. This is not about so-called progressivism v. conservatism, or atheism v. religion. This is about the kind of society we want to live in.
“The vision that this Bill presents is one in which the disabled and vulnerable are made to feel like they are a burden, as if their lives are worth less.”
Assurances that problems with the Bill would be addressed at Committee stage had not been fulfilled, she said. “Instead, it has presented more unanswered questions, left more doubts, and seen so-called protections crumble away before even coming into law. I implore every Member of Parliament to ask themselves whether they truly believe assisted suicide is right for the society in which we want to live.”
On Thursday, Bishop Chessun sent a lengthy letter to MPs whose constituencies fall within his diocese. He raised concerns about the lack of availability of high-quality palliative care, and the danger that people would choose an assisted death out of fear that they were becoming a burden to loved ones.
“I fully understand the plea for the dignity of life through to our last breath. Indeed, I fully believe in it. . . I also understand the argument for complete autonomy in determining one’s life and its passing. I do not share that view in its entirety. For me such an outlook does not acknowledge life as a gift in creation or life in relationship with others,” he wrote.
Bishop Chessun also warned of the danger of coercion, drawing attention to concerns raised in Parliament by the Labour MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell, Florence Eshalomi, who has suggested that people who are UK Minority Ethnic/Global Majority Heritage could be particularly vulnerable. Women, too, could be particularly vulnerable to coercion, Bishop Chessun suggested.