UK bishops continue to speak out after release of assisted suicide bill text

London, England, Nov 14, 2024 / 12:40 pm (CNA).

The bishops of England and Wales continue to urge Catholics to “raise their voices” in opposition to an assisted suicide bill, the text of which was published earlier this week.

Late on Nov. 11, English Labour Member of Parliament Kim Leadbeater published her Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill before Parliament members vote on it Nov. 29. This means that members have less than three weeks to prepare to vote on a controversial issue.

Archbishop of Southwark John Wilson said: “As followers of the Lord Jesus, we must be bold in our efforts to uphold, respect, and protect every human life from conception until natural death, because if we don’t stand up and value the dignity of human life, who will?”

“The Catholic Church is clear: Every life is valuable — regardless of a person’s physical or mental state,” he continued.

The archbishop’s words come as the contents of Leadbeater’s controversial bill showed that terminally ill adults who are expected to die within six months would legally be able to seek help to kill themselves provided they receive the approval of two doctors and a judge. 

However, Wilson is concerned that the new bill will communicate the message that the elderly and vulnerable are “nothing but a burden to society.”

“People are being presented as a problem,” he said. “As a burden. A statistic. Something we can deal with through ending their life. Where is the dignity in that? Where is the love in that?”

Reacting to those who say “life has no value,” he said: “We need to raise our voices to say that is not true. We are stewards, not owners, of the life we have received. Life is not ours to dispose of.” 

Leadbeater insisted that her bill contains “robust” safeguards, claiming that coercion would lead to 14 years in jail, but Wilson believes the pressure on sick and vulnerable people to opt for assisted suicide would be “immeasurable.”

“The pressure this would put people under who are suffering illnesses or disabilities is immeasurable. It demeans humanity and deprives people of their right to life. This right is given by God and is for God alone to take.”

The archbishop challenged U.K. Catholics to contact their members of Parliament and pray for the defeat of the bill in obedience to their calling as disciples of Christ. 

Warning that the new bill represents “a very real prospect of assisted suicide becoming law in the U.K.,” he said that “as followers of Christ we must do all we can to support and protect the most vulnerable in our society.” 

Issuing a rally call for Catholics to take action, he said: “Together let’s show that we will not stand idly by while the elderly and people with illnesses and disabilities are treated as if they are nothing but a burden to society or to their family. Let’s be clear that they are made in the image and likeness of God.”

Wilson pointed out that, under the new bill, “assisted suicide … will radically change how our health care practitioners care for us.”  

Catholic U.K. medic Dermot Kearney commented that “most [doctors] still believe that the principle of doing no harm to patients is essential in the provision of authentic health care.” Rather than introducing the bill, Kearney told CNA that a better way of approaching end-of-life care would be “to improve and expand the palliative care and hospice services that are already in existence but have been severely underfunded for so long.” 

Bishop Patrick McKinney of Nottingham backed up Archbishop Wilson’s words, with a focus on the social context of the bill’s introduction. 

Health Secretary Wes Streeting, who has confirmed his own opposition to the bill, has admitted the U.K. National Health Service is “broken.” 

Palliative care services are also in crisis, while many elderly people have seen the government remove their winter fuel payment. 

Following the publication of the bill, McKinney shared his concerns, saying: “Catholics can never support assisted suicide, but our societal context makes this nill even more alarming: An NHS at [its] breaking point, inadequate social care provision, access to palliative care is patchy and underfunded, [and] winter fuel payments withdrawn from many.”

The archbishop of Southwark urged U.K. Catholics to use the Right to Life UK website to contact their members of Parliament and express opposition to assisted suicide. 

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, called on Catholics in England and Wales to join him and his fellow bishops for a Holy Hour on Nov. 13 “to pray for the dignity of human life” in the light of the upcoming vote on Leadbeater’s bill. 

“We pray passionately that we will not take a step in legislation that promotes a so-called ‘right to die,’” Nichols said.

“That will quite likely become a duty to die and place pressure on doctors and medical staff to help take life rather than to care, protect, and heal,” he said.