Category: euthanasia

Open Letter from Women of Faith on Assisted Dying

Photo: Theos

Source – Theos

Religious think-tank, Theos, has published an open letter signed by over 100 women from different faith traditions voicing significant concerns over the current proposed legislation for Assisted Dying.

We believe that the Terminally Ill Adults Bill has insufficient safeguards to protect some of the most vulnerable in society, particularly women subject to gender-based violence.

Colette Joyce, Justice and Peace Co-ordinator for the Diocese of Westminster, and Nikki Dhillon-Keane, Head of Safe in Faith for Caritas Westminster, are among the signatories.

Our open letter was reported on in The Guardian and the Church Times.

The full text is below:

Open letter from women of faith on assisted dying

4 April 2025

We write as a group of women of faith from different traditions and backgrounds passionate about care for people in vulnerable situations, many of whom have dedicated our professional lives to preventing male violence against women and girls.  

We hold a variety of views on the principle of legalising assisted dying. However, we are all clear that the current legislation – The Terminally Ill Adults Bill – progressing through parliament, has insufficient safeguards to protect some of the most marginalised in society, particularly women subjected to gender–based violence, and abuse by a partner, who also experience intersecting barriers to a full and safe life. 

We are concerned that the proposed legislation could create a new tool to harm vulnerable women, particularly those being subjected to domestic abuse and coercive control, by helping them to end their lives. 

A report out last month showed that the number of domestic abuse victims who died by suicide in England and Wales was higher than the number of people killed by their abusive partner, for the second year running. 

We know too that domestic abuse victims who are also women of faith can face a particular form of abuse[1] at the hands of their perpetrators, who may weaponise theologies and culture to harm and control their victims. We are concerned that the assisted dying legislation, as it stands, fails to take account of how faith and its role at the end of life, as well as its use by both perpetrators and the women they abuse, create complex dynamics that can lead to vulnerable women, who may also hold strong religious beliefs, seeing no way out but death.

We know that poverty and other inequalities increase the risk of women and girls being subjected to violence, ill health and the quality of care and support they receive from statutory institutions and civil society. We know too that in a society riven with inequalities, women who are from Black and minoritised communities, disabled women, migrant women and working–class women, struggle to be heard. Their voices are absent from conversations about this bill, and so too are those subjective to coercive control or violence. It is unclear to us how the legislation and its consultative process has taken account of the multiplicity of faiths, cultures, socio–economic and health backgrounds of our citizens and women who make up our country. 

Much of the debate inside and outside parliament has been conducted by those empowered to speak of the importance of personal choice, without consideration of those who struggle to be heard in the public square. It is the voices of the unheard, ignored, and marginalised that we are compelled by our faith traditions and scriptures to listen and draw attention to, in the pursuit of good law–making for the common good – legislation that considers and protects the most vulnerable, not just those who speak loudest.

Having followed the progress of the bill through parliament, we are particularly concerned about: 

  • The risk that people (mainly women) with controlling and abusive partners (mainly men) will be coerced into assisted death. While we welcome the adopted amendments that stipulate training for the assessing doctors and the panel members, this safeguard only comes into play after someone has already been coerced into declaring that they want an assisted death, and will clearly not catch all cases. We also know, from research and experience, that coercive control is a long–term process that is both insidious and subtle with women often unaware of it until the perpetrator’s behaviour escalates. 
  • The reality that since 2016, deaths by suicide have been included in the scope of domestic homicide reviews and there is growing research on women who die by suicide as directly linked to having an abusive partner. We are concerned that if this legislation passes, women may seek assisted deaths to end their suffering at the hands of an abuser. Domestic Homicide Reviews also reveal the disproportionate number of Black and minoritised women who are failed by statutory and state agencies like the police, social services, health services and specialist services like substance misuse and mental health and women’s services despite their calls for help.    
  • There are no longer High Court protections embedded in the Bill
  • There are insufficient protections for those with learning disabilities and people with anorexia. 
  • The use of the vehicle of the Private Member’s Bill for this landmark legislation. This has resulted in the impact assessment being shared after the Bill Committee stage, which makes it difficult for all of us with concerns about inequalities to gauge how this legislation will affect Black and minoritised and faith communities, people with disabilities, and those experiencing economic disadvantage.

If assisted dying is seen as a response to alleviate suffering, without addressing the underlying structural issues that make life difficult and safeguard against harm, it could put undue pressure on vulnerable women to choose death over inadequate care.

This is no way to legislate, especially not on matters of life and death. We have serious concerns about the bill and its lack of safeguards. The bill has too much potential to hurt vulnerable people and so we are uniting as women from across faith traditions to speak up for vulnerable women, including victims of violence against women and girls, and disabled women, and raise our concerns publicly.

Signatories:

  1. Chine McDonald, director, Theos
  2. Bekah Legg, CEO, Restored
  3. Huda Jawad, co–founder and executive director, Faith and VAWG Coalition
  4. Sam Clifford, CEO, Jewish Women’s Aid
  5. The Rt Revd and Rt Hon Dame Sarah Mullally DBE, Bishop of London
  6. Dr Naomi Green, Assistant Secretary General, Muslim Council of Britain
  7. Professor Sheila The Baroness Hollins, President, The Catholic Union of Great Britain
  8. Rabbi Debbie Young–Somers
  9. Zara Mohammed, former secretary general, Muslim Council of Britain
  10. Hannah Rich, director, Christians on the Left
  11. Revd Dr Helen Paynter, founding director, Centre for the Study of Bible and Violence
  12. Naomi Lerer, CEO, Noa Girls 
  13. Amanda Jackson, senior advisor on diversity, World Evangelical Alliance
  14. The Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Anglican Bishop for HM Prisons
  15. Commissioner Jenine Main, Territorial Leader, The Salvation Army, United Kingdom and Ireland
  16. Louisa Collyer–Hamlin, Head of External Affairs, Catholic Union
  17. Patricia Stoat, Science Health & Bioethics Committee of the National Board of Catholic Women
  18. Rt Revd Rose Hudson–Wilkin, Bishop of Dover
  19. Dr Sahira Dar, president, British Islamic Medical Association
  20. Rachel Fink, CEO, S&P Sephardi Jewish Community
  21. Tola Doll Fisher, Creative Director and Editor, Premier Woman Alive
  22. Elizabeth Harris Sawczenko, OBE, Interfaith consultant 
  23. Nikki Dhillon Keane, Head of Caritas Safe in Faith
  24. Jagbir Jhutti–Johal, Professor of Sikh Studies, University of Birmingham 
  25. Professor Tina Beattie, Professor Emerita of Catholic Studies, University of Roehampton, London
  26. The Rt Revd Dr Joanne Woolway Grenfell, Bishop of Stepney and Lead Safeguarding Bishop for the Church of England
  27. Natalie Collins, author and activist
  28. Sian Rees, head of Bible Society Wales
  29. Rt Revd Dr Jill Duff, Anglican Bishop of Lancaster
  30. The Rt Revd Vivienne Faull, Lord Bishop of Bristol
  31. Rev Catherine De Souza, CEO, Prison Fellowship England & Wales
  32. ​​Sally Hope, Domestic Abuse Practitioner and Writer
  33. Dr Selina Stone, Lecturer in Theology and Ethics, University of Edinburgh
  34. Dawn McAvoy, Both Lives UK
  35. Mandy Marshall, Director for Gender Justice, Anglican Alliance and Anglican Communion
  36. Revd Jenni Entrican, Former President of the European Baptist Federation
  37. Alicia Edmund, Head of public policy Evangelical Alliance
  38. Dr Madeleine Pennington, Quaker writer and head of research, Theos 
  39. Damilola Makinde, Advocacy engagement lead, Evangelical Alliance
  40. Julia Bicknell, ex–BBC Woman’s Hour producer; lay chaplain for asylum seekers/refugees
  41. The Rt Revd Dr Rosemarie Mallett, Bishop of Croydon
  42. Rev Mae Christie, Vicar, All Saints, Tooting
  43. Joy Madeiros, Co–Founder, Oasis UK
  44. Ann–Louise Graham, journalist and biblical counselor
  45. Prof. Anna Rowlands, St Hilda Professor of Catholic Social Thought and Practice
  46. Canon Dr Sanjee Perera, lay canon of Liverpool Cathedral, organisational psychologist and theologian
  47. Aja Thorburn, writer 
  48. Michelle Tant, Midwifery Lecturer and writer
  49. Joanna Davey, editorial director, Hodder Faith 
  50. Rev Bryony Taylor, Rector of Barlborough and Clowne and Author
  51. Dr Elizabeth Dalgarno, director, SHERA research group
  52. Dr Caroline Hull, national director, Aid to the Church in Need (UK)
  53. Amy Summerfield, CEO, Kyria Network 
  54. Rev Liz Clutterbuck, Priest–in–Charge Emmanuel Hornsey Road, Islington
  55. Rev Leonora Wassell, Co–Chair, Methodist Women in Britain
  56. Rebecca (Bex) Chapman, General Synod member and vice–chair, Christians in Media
  57. Debra Green OBE, CEO, ROC
  58. Alice Gray, palliative care doctor and assistant pastor, Oasis Church, Birmingham
  59. Ruth Parrott, former president and co–chair, Methodist Women in Britain
  60. Shermara Fletcher–Hoyte, Principal Officer for Pentecostal, Charismatic and Multi–cultural Relations, Churches Together in England
  61. Catherine Butcher, author, lay reader, and member of General Synod
  62. Faith Van Horne, PhD, Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham 
  63. Jamie Phear, writer and speaker 
  64. Rachel Muers, Professor of Divinity, University of Edinburgh 
  65. Jayne Manfredi, Anglican Deacon
  66. Katharine Lock
  67. Rev Cham Kaur–Mann, Co–Director, Next Leadership
  68. The Rt Revd Esther Prior, Bishop of Aston
  69. Rev Dr Kate Coleman, Co–Director, Next Leadership
  70. Rosemary Nuamah–Williams, policy Adviser and advocate
  71. Jo Chamberlain, National Environment Officer, Church of England Environment Programme
  72. Dr Usha Reifsnider, Co regional Director, Lausanne Europe, Cultural Theology Consultant
  73. ​​Lucy Butt, CEO, Bramber Bakehouse
  74. Dr Janet Soskice, Professor of Philosophical Theology, Emeritus, University of Cambridge
  75. Stella Mbubaegbu CBE, FE College Principal & Chief Executive
  76. Mary McHugh, National Board of Catholic Women of England and Wales
  77. Hope Virgo, author, campaigner and Secretariat for the APPG for Eating Disorders
  78. Rev Bev Thomas Ecumenical Minister & Social Justice Advocate
  79. Rev Claire McClelland, Head of Chaplaincy, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals 
  80. Rev Jenny Kimble, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Regents Theological College
  81. Rev. Michelle Nunn, Principal, Regents Theological College, and Member of Elim’s National Leadership Team
  82. The Venerable Karen Best, Archdeacon of Manchester  
  83. Dr Anne Richards, Policy Adviser, Church of England
  84. Revd Dr Hannah Lewis, Lead Chaplain among the Deaf Community, Diocese of Oxford
  85. Janie Oliver, CEO, Stewardship
  86. Dr Calida Chu, Associate Editor, Practical Theology
  87. The Revd Jessica Monopoli, Assistant Curate, St Mary’s Cockerton, and Clergy Lead at The Haven in Darlington, Co. Durham
  88. Bobbi Kumari, founder, Living in Light 
  89. Barbara Earl, Croydon Quakers
  90. Danielle Finch, freelance writer (disability, family & faith)
  91. Rev. Rebecca Amoroso, Hospital Chaplain
  92. Christina Mottram, retired lay Catholic hospital chaplain, Leicester Hospitals
  93. Salomé Criddle, CEO, Thriving Women In Real Life
  94. Revd Dr Joanne Cox– Darling, Methodist presbyter
  95. Anupama Ranawana, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Theology and Religion, University of Durham
  96. Danielle Wilson, Pioneer Pastor, Birmingham
  97. Dr Claire Williams OMS, Lecturer in Practical Theology, Academic Inclusion Advocate, Regents Theological College
  98. Reverend Joyce Fletcher, National Executive Director of Women and Family for the Church of God of Prophecy
  99. Dionne Gravesande, trustee of Restored and co–chair, National Church Leader Forum
  100. Dr Beverley Samways, Director, Unique Connections
  101. Alianore Smith, member of the General Synod of the Church of England
  102. Revd Novette Headley,  Chair – Birmingham Methodist District
  103. Colette Joyce, co–ordinator, Justice and Peace Commission, Diocese of Westminster
  104. The Revd. Lis Goddard, vicar, St James the Less Pimlico
  105. Doreen Patricia Waugh, domestic abuse practitioner, Justice and peace representative
  106. Rev. Sarah Whittleston, National Elim Prayer Director
  107. Dr Eve Poole OBE Lay Canon, York Minster 
  108. Revd Alexandra Lilley, Vicar, St George and All Saints Tufnell Park and Dean of Women’s Ministry
  109. Michelle Dumont
  110. Revd. Canon Kate Wharton, Vicar of St. Bartholomew’s Church, Roby, Liverpool, General Synod member, and Prolocutor of the Lower House of the Convocation of York.
  111. Rani Joshi – South Asian Forum coordinator / Evangelical Alliance
  112. Baroness Shaista Gohir – CEO, Muslim Women’s Network UK 

This initiative follows a meeting organised in partnership with the Faith and Violence Against Women and Girls Coalition, and Restored, facilitated by Jewish Women’s Aid, and brought together by Theos.

For more information, see:

Addressing Spiritual Abuse in Ending Violence Against Women – Faith & VAWG Coalition

The Meaning of Dignity: What’s beneath the assisted dying debate? – Theos 

Nikki Dhillon-Keane writes on assisted suicide: protecting victims of domestic abuse

Nikki Dhillon-Keane

Source: CBCEW / thetablet.co.uk

Nikki Dhillon Keane, founder of Safe in Faith UK, is a therapist who helps survivors of abuse and Head of Service at Caritas Safe in Faith on domestic abuse and assisted suicide.

‘The criminal justice system is just acknowledging the scale of possible criminal culpability in domestic abuse and suicide, while at the same time, a bunch of MPs seek to make it non-criminal.’

The questions raised by the proposed Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill are highly complex. It is difficult to imagine the deeply personal experience of terminal illness, for patients and their families. Raising questions about the safety of proposed legislation should in no way be viewed as a lack of compassion for people nearing the end of their lives; rather as an attempt to ensure that all people affected by this legislation, particularly the most vulnerable, are safe from harm.

There is one particularly vulnerable group for whom this legislation could significantly increase risk: victim/survivors of domestic abuse.  Often invisible, they have, until very recently, been all but totally absent from the debate around assisted suicide.  For many people being subjected to domestic abuse, however, this danger is all too evident.

Shortly after the evidence session of the Committee stage of the bill began. I found myself listening to Helena (not her real name), who was telling me why she was so worried about the bill: “It’s not for the same reason that other people have a problem with it,” she tells me.

Helena is a domestic abuse survivor, who used to live with her former husband in a country with legalised assisted dying. She explained her fear: “It is when your spouse wants to kill you, and the state gives them a totally legal way to do it…”

As a disabled woman, Helena had a higher risk of domestic abuse. In the UK, one in two deaf and disabled women experience domestic abuse during their lifetime. Helena continued: “My husband used to threaten to euthanise me if he got fed up with being my carer.” She tells me that legislation had expanded there to include chronic, not just terminal, illness – the all-too-familiar slippery slope.

For almost 20 years, Helena was subjected to coercive control by her then husband. Recognised in the UK as a criminal offence under the serious crimes act 2015, coercive control is the umbrella under which all the other forms of domestic abuse are perpetrated. Threats and isolation are common tactics, as is weaponising whatever is available for the perpetrator to gain and maintain control. If a victim has a disability or chronic illness, it is very common for that to be used by the perpetrator as part of the abuse, restricting access to medication, or aids such as wheelchairs or hearing aids. If the perpetrator also has the role of carer, escape – or even a chance to safely disclose abuse – can be almost impossible. Disability or illness can leave domestic abuse victims completely trapped with their abuser.

I have spent most of the last quarter century working with victim/survivors of domestic abuse. Coercive control, which tends to escalate slowly and subtly over time, can be extremely hard to recognise, even for those being subjected to it. It is even harder to prove. Any signs of physical harm are probably well hidden, or more often not present at all. Sometimes the first act of physical violence is the fatal one. More often, however, when domestic abuse becomes fatal, it is through suicide. An estimated three women take their life every week as a direct result of domestic abuse. A further 30 female domestic abuse survivors contemplate suicide every day. Recognition of the causal link between domestic abuse and suicide is a very recent development in British law. Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews (which unlike Domestic Homicide Reviews, investigate domestic abuse related suicide) were only introduced in May 2024. While this development is welcome, most health and social work professionals receive little or no training in coercive control, missing opportunities to prevent further deaths.

Proposed amendments to the assisted suicide bill would require mandatory training for professionals to help them spot coercion. Most likely, this is intended as an important protection against relatives, motivated perhaps by thoughts of a dwindling inheritance, gently pressuring a terminally ill relative to consider the option of a swift assisted death, rather than expensive palliative care. However, training to help professionals recognise a terminally ill person wishing for death as the only escape from the torment of abuse is a more complex matter.

Macmillan Cancer Support has released a toolkit for professionals working with cancer patients to help them recognise domestic abuse. Just as they do with disabilities, domestic abuse perpetrators tend to weaponise critical or terminal illness as part of their abuse. Domestic abuse victims and perpetrators can be any age. Sometimes perpetrators abuse their spouse for decades. We need to be aware that there is a very real possibility that someone nearing the end of their life may also be a victim of domestic abuse, and that this is likely to affect decisions about assisted suicide.

Given the high levels of suicidality among victims, and the control that abusers have over them, it is easy to see how assisted suicide legislation could be twisted into a method for perpetrators to kill their spouse with impunity.  Prof Jane Monkton-Smith, a specialist in fatal coercive control, has shared her fears about the bill on social media: “The CJS [criminal justice system] is just acknowledging the scale of possible criminal culpability in domestic abuse and suicide, whilst at the same time, a bunch of MPs seek to make it non-criminal.”

Currently, in the UK, a woman is murdered by her partner or former partner every five days. In countries where assisted suicide is legalised there is (perhaps unsurprisingly) a significant lack of research into any potential links between legally assisted suicides and domestic abuse. However, there is information from the UK regarding so-called “mercy killings”. This is a term used to describe someone being killed illegally but with the claimed intent to relieve suffering. A disturbing review of over 100 UK mercy killings by the research centre The Other Half found that “mercy killings are not the wanted, hastened deaths that need assisted dying. They are overwhelmingly violent domestic homicides of women by men”.

Whatever views people may have about what it means to die with dignity, it is clear that there are serious risks which would arise from passing the assisted suicide bill into legislation. As Helena put it: “I just don’t want anyone living with the fear and threats that I had. Whatever we do, we need to make sure that we don’t open the door to another way for men to harm women and get away with it.”

Link

Caritas Westminster – Safe in Faith

Cardinal Nichols Criticises ‘Deeply Irresponsible’ Assisted Suicide Bill

Source: RCDOW Photo: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk

Cardinal Nichols has called the way in which the assisted suicide bill is being handled ‘deeply irresponsible’ and a ‘shambles’.

Speaking to Christian Fellowship, a group at News UK, the Cardinal expressed serious concern that MPs had only spent a few hours debating assisted suicide when they spent more than a hundred times longer debating banning fox hunting in 2004.

He said:

‘I believe it is deeply irresponsible of any government to allow a change of this magnitude to be carried out without due, proper, government-supported parliamentary process’.

‘I think what’s happening, if it came to pass, would be the biggest change that this country has seen for many, many decades at least, probably more. On the back of what – five, six, seven hours’ debate?

‘I was told that the fox hunting bill [in 2004] endured 700 hours of debate.’

Despite these concerns, he hoped that the bill could still be defeated as it makes it way through the Houses of Parliament: ‘I don’t think that story’s over yet.’

The Hunting Act 2004 passed after 700 hours of parliamentary debate and a government inquiry – the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill, passed on November 29 by 330 to 275 last year after five hours of debate.

Cardinal Nichols added that there was ‘something deeply lacking in a government that isn’t prepared to guide and sponsor,if it wants to, this process of legal change’.

In October last year, Cardinal Nichols issued a pastoral letter to his diocese, encouraging Catholics to contact their MPs ahead of the debate.

In it, he raised concerns: ‘the right to die can become a duty to die’.

He said:

‘Once assisted suicide is approved by the law, a key protection of human life falls away. Pressure mounts on those who are nearing death, from others or even from themselves, to end their life in order to take away a perceived burden of care from their family, for the avoidance of pain, or for the sake of an inheritance.’

‘The radical change in the law now being proposed risks bringing about for all medical professionals a slow change from a duty to care to a duty to kill.’

Cardinal Signs Multi-Faith Letter Opposing Assisted Suicide

Cardinal Vincent Nichols. Photo: CBCEW

Source: CBCEW

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, has co-signed a multi-faith letter ahead of the assisted suicide vote in parliament on Friday:

As leaders of faith communities we wish to express our concern at the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill, which will be debated by MPs on 29th November. We are aware of how complex and weighty this topic is. There are many dimensions to the bill, all of them of great ethical and practical importance. We hold in prayer all those across our country who may be personally affected, and our representatives in Parliament with profound decisions before them.

Part of the role of faith leaders in communities is to provide spiritual and pastoral care for the sick and for the dying. We hold the hands of loved ones in their final days, we pray with families both before and after death. It is to this vocation that we have been called, and it is from this vocation that we write.

Our pastoral roles make us deeply concerned about the impact the bill would have on the most vulnerable, opening up the possibility of life-threating abuse and coercion. This is a concern we know is shared by many people, with and without faith.

In the UK, it is estimated that 2.7 million older people have been subjected to abuse; many of these may also be vulnerable to pressure to end their lives prematurely. Disability campaigners and those working with women in abusive relationships have also highlighted the danger of unintended consequences should the law be changed. The experience of jurisdictions which have introduced similar legislation, such as Oregon and Canada, demonstrate how tragic these unintended consequences can be. Promised safeguards have not always protected the vulnerable and marginalised.

Even when surrounded by loving family and friends, people towards the end of their life can still feel like a burden. This is especially the case while adult social care remains underfunded. In this environment, it is easy to see how a ‘right to die’ could all too easily end in feeling you have a duty to die.

We are convinced that the current law provides much greater security for those who are vulnerable than the bill before Parliament. A bill which MPs will have had only three weeks to scrutinise before they vote on it. The most effective safeguard against life-threatening coercion or abuse is to keep the law as it is.

In supporting the state of the current law, we do not deny that some people experience a painful death, though we welcome the fact that these deaths are far less common than they used to be due to advances in palliative care.

Over decades we have witnessed how compassionate care, along with the natural processes of dying, allow those at the end of their life to experience important moments. We have seen relationships repair and families reconcile. We have seen lives end in love. Much can be lost by cutting these processes short.

We believe that a truly compassionate response to the end of life lies in the provision of high-quality palliative care services to all who need them. While there are many examples of excellent palliative care in this country, it remains worryingly underfunded. Investment in palliative care is the policy of a truly compassionate nation. It is the way to ensure that everyone in society, including the most vulnerable, receive the care they deserve at the end of life.

Sarah Mullally, Bishop of London and former Chief Nursing Officer;
Cardinal Vincent Nichols Archbishop of Westminster;
Ephraim Mirvis, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth.
Sayed Abdul Saheb Al-Khoei, Secretary General of Al-Khoei Foundation;
Archbishop Angaelos, Coptic Orthodox Church;
Imam Qari Asim, Chair of MINAB (Mosques and Imams Advisory Board);
Glyn Barrett, National Leader Assemblies of God;
Anil Bhanot, Managing Trustee of the Hindu Council UK;
Gavin Calver, CEO of Evangelical Alliance;
Malcolm Deboo, President, Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe;
Joseph Dweck, Senior Rabbi of the Spanish & Portuguese Sephardi Community;
Pinchas Hackenbroch, Chair of the Rabbinical Council;
Ross Hendry, CEO of CARE (Christian Action, Research and Education);
Trevor Howard, Executive Vice-Chair of the Board, Churches in Communities International;
Andrew John, Archbishop of Church in Wales;
Nikitas Lulias, Archbishop of Great Britain, Greek Orthodox Church;
Paul Main and Jenine Main, Territorial Leaders of The Salvation Army in the United Kingdom and Ireland;
Patrick McKinney, Bishop of Nottingham, Roman Catholic Church;
Zara Mohammed, Secretary General of the Muslim Council of Britain;
Bhai Sahib Mohinder Singh Ahluwalia, Spiritual Leader & Chair, Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak Jatha; Trupti Patel, President of the Hindu Forum of Britain;
Mark Pugh, General Superintendent of Elim Pentecostal Churches;
Mehool Sanghrajka, Chair of the Institute of Jainology;
Venerable Bogoda Seelawimala, President of Sri Lankan Sangha Sabha of GB;
Lord Singh of Wimbledon, Director of the Network of Sikh Organisations UK;
Jonathan Wittenberg, Senior Rabbi of Masorti Judaism;
Mar Awraham Youkhanis, Bishop of London, Assyrian Church of the East.

Catholic Medical Association Statement on Assisted Dying

The president of the Catholic Medical Association, Dr Mike Delany has appealed to Members of Parliament to oppose legislation to bring in assisted suicide when the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is given its second reading on 29 November.

Dr Delany commented that assisting a person to end their own life is contrary to the Christian understanding of the sanctity of life and the role of medical practitioners and that it is also contrary to our understanding of the meaning of compassion. Compassion means to “suffer with” another person. It involves accompanying people, especially during sickness, disability and old age when we know that people are frail and vulnerable. Such accompaniment is the responsibility of all those who care for those who are suffering, including medical practitioners.

We believe it is wrong for doctors to help somebody to deliberately kill themselves and that such actions have no place in a compassionate society.

In common with many others, we see the dangers of the legalisation of assisted suicide for the future of palliative care and we also fear the progressive relaxation of the proposed safeguards. However, there are particular concerns for the medical profession.

This legislation has the potential to fundamentally change the relationship between doctor and patient. Doctors will be allowed to initiate a conversation about assisting patients to commit suicide if they meet the criteria. No doctor should be allowed to initiate a conversation that leads to him or her offering to help a patient kill themselves.

We reject entirely the language of the proponents of the bill who have suggested that assisted dying “does not shorten life, it shortens death.” This changes fundamentally how we think about people in the later stages of life who are very much alive and have a right to the care they need to live in dignity.

The conscientious objection clause proposed in the bill is very weak. Any doctor who refuses to participate in discussions about assisted suicide will be required to refer the patient to another doctor who will. This means that any doctor, upon qualification, will be required by law to co-operate in the deliberate taking of the life of another human being: if not in person, by referral to another doctor. No Catholic doctor could do that in good conscience.

We are concerned too for the Catholic hospices and care homes in which we work. It would seem likely that, if the bill becomes law, they will be required to co-operate with assisted suicide. This would create major problems for our Catholic care sector, which has genuine compassion at its heart, and it would undermine further the provision of palliative care in this country.

On these grounds, and on many others, I ask all Catholic healthcare workers to write to their MPs to oppose this bill.

Contact your MP

There is a simple online mechanism to contact your MP. It takes little more than a few minutes to input your postcode, make sure the suggested text suits your viewpoint and submit your message to ask your MP to stop assisted suicide being rushed into law.

Click here to contact your MP via the Right to Life UK website.

LINK

Catholic Medical Association: https://catholicmedicalassociation.org.uk/

Assisted Suicide Bill Panel Discussion at Farm Street, Sunday 24 November, 3-5pm

Is the Assisted Suicide Bill about Compassion, Giving Choice and Dignity? 

Calling All People of Faith and those of None. The Catholic Union and Farm Street Church have organised an important event on Sunday 24 November, 3-5pm at Farm Street Church, 114 Mount Street, London W1K 3AH.

Come and hear from experts in the field who have serious concerns about a possible change in the law. Our panel includes:

– Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson DBE DL, multi gold medal winning paralympic athlete and advocate for disability rights

– Dr Matthew Doré, Consultant Palliative Care Physician

– Professor Julian Hughes, Former Consultant Old Age Psychiatrist

– Professor David Albert Jones, Professor of Bioethics.

Panel Discussion with some Q&A at the end. Livestreaming available by visiting www.farmstreet.org.uk/livestream

Book with Eventbrite

Please note that the event will be livestreamed, filmed, recorded and photographed.

Cardinal calls for an hour of prayer for the dignity of human life on Wednesday 13 November

Photo: RCDOW

Cardinal Vincent Nichols and the other bishops of England and Wales are encouraging all to join them as they pause for an hour in the middle of their autumn plenary meeting, at 5.30pm on Wednesday, 13 November, to kneel in front of the Blessed Sacrament to pray for the dignity of human life and to uphold a culture of life in our countries.

They will gather in the Chapel of the Holy Family at Hinsley Hall, Leeds, to unite in compassionate action in light of the bill passing through parliament that seeks to legalise assisted suicide. The holy hour will end with Evening Prayer before a concluding Benediction.

Cardinal Vincent said: “We offer our prayers this holy hour for the dignity of human life. In particular our focus is on the end of life and praying together in front of the Blessed Sacrament that assisted suicide will not become law in our lands. This would greatly diminish the importance and innate value of every human person, akin to saying that our life is not a gift of God. Instead we would be asserting that life is our own possession to do with as we choose. But we are far more important than that. We are a gift of God – a gift that is freely given. Then, when God is ready, we are called back to him.

“During this holy hour, we pray that many minds and hearts will be open to this beautiful and great truth about the value, importance, and beauty of every human person. We pray passionately that we will not take a step in legislation that promotes a so-called ‘right to die’, 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.

“When you are praying, please remember those who offer such care and accompaniment to people facing their last days and hours. Especially pray for those who work in palliative care – nurses, doctors, people who are home visitors. They do a wonderful job with care and compassion, but they need more resources. That is what we should be investing in, not a piece of legislation that leaves us vulnerable and under pressure to seek an end to our life.

“This is an important moment in our history. Please write to your MP and express your view to that member of Parliament. Many have not yet made up their minds how to vote.

“May God bless us all, bless our countries, and bless those who make our laws with courage to embrace and uphold a culture of life.”

On Friday, 29 November, the House of Commons will hear the Second Reading of a new bill on assisted suicide tabled by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater. This is another attempt to legalise assisted suicide and we need you to contact your MP to voice your opposition.

Please visit the Bishops’ Conference resources on assisted suicide. Here you will find content that explains why we oppose assisted suicide, provides answers to FAQs, helps Catholics to quickly and easily contact their MP, provides further information on hospice care, and more.

Here you can download a simple two-page A4 PDF with suggested readings, intercessions and reflections to accompany your time of prayer, whether this is in church in front of the Blessed Sacrament, or in your own home.

There will be a Holy Hour at Farm Street Church, on Wednesday 13 November 2024, 5.00-6.00pm, with Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and prayers for the dignity of human life at 5.30pm.

Members of the Westminster Justice and Peace network are particularly welcome to join us for this time of prayer, either in person or on the parish livestream.

Farm Street Church

Watch the Cardinal’s Message on Youtube here: 

Fr Hugh Mackenzie: A Hospital Chaplain’s Opposition to Assisted Dying

Photo: RCDOW

Source: RCDOW

Fr Hugh Mackenzie shares a couple of angles upon why the Church opposes legalising assisted suicide or euthanasia, inspired by some philosophy and some deathbed ministry at St John’s Hospice. 

Human beings are good beings. This is true even if they do bad actions, but especially if they have bad suffering. To be alive is to have an importance. This basic value is not earnt but received along with life itself. Love of someone affirms that importance. Denying the importance of someone’s life is not true love. 

The basic concepts of good and bad, right and wrong, compassion and trust, emerge from this intrinsic value of the human. Goodness is ultimately about fostering the human person. To set criteria by which the importance of someone staying alive can be evaluated, undermines their basic value and the very basis of morality and civilisation.

You don’t need to believe in God to understand this, but it does complete the picture. In the light of faith, we believe that life is a gift of God and that every human being has an eternal dignity.  The basic value and vocation of human life is not earnt but given, by God.

This all means that St Paul was right, the way we live and die affects everyone else (Rom 14:7). No one is an island. It is wrong to argue as some do that euthanasia is a matter of personal choice.

Legalising euthanasia would profoundly change the relationship between medical professionals and patients in hospitals and care homes. It would also damage trust within families. The sick and elderly often worry that they are a burden on others and could easily feel pressurised into asking for help to end their lives. In countries where euthanasia is legal, resources for hospices and funding for research into better end-of-life treatments have been tragically reduced.

Far from life becoming pointless in the face of terminal illness, such moments can be occasions of amazing grace, as I and many hospital chaplains can attest. Loving when carrying a cross saves the world.

The end of life’s journey can present serious physical and mental challenges, yet pain is always easier to bear when we are at peace. Research shows that persistent requests for assisted suicide are rare when people’s spiritual needs are adequately met. Our ‘quality of life’ is not just about physical health and autonomy, but about our spiritual well-being. Human dignity is sustained by the love we receive and the love we give and ultimately, real peace comes from living, and dying, in the love of God.

This is why we should surround the dying not just with the best physical care but with constant prayer, like Our Lady at the foot of the cross. This is the true meaning of ‘assisted dying’.

Cardinal calls on Catholics to take action and oppose assisted suicide

Photo: RCDOW

Cardinal Vincent Nichols, President of the Bishops’ Conference and Archbishop of Westminster, has issued a pastoral letter on assisted suicide that will be read in the churches of his diocese on the weekend of 12-13 October. 

Referring to a private members’ bill on assisted suicide that will be introduced to the House of Commons on Wednesday, 16 October 2024, the Cardinal offers three key points for Catholics to be aware of, and calls on the faithful to be fully engaged in the debate and to write to their MP to oppose assisted suicide being rushed into law.

Slippery slope

‘The evidence from every single country in which such a law has been passed is clear,’ says Cardinal Vincent. ‘That the circumstances in which the taking of a life is permitted are widened and widened, making assisted suicide and medical killing, or euthanasia, more and more available and accepted.’

Be careful what you wish for, he says: ‘This proposed change in the law may be a source of relief to some. But it will bring great fear and trepidation to many, especially those who have vulnerabilities and those living with disabilities. What is now proposed will not be the end of the story. It is a story better not begun.’

A right to die can become a duty to die

The Cardinal’s second key point examines how removing legislation that prohibits an action in favour of introducing a law that permits, changes societal attitudes – that which is permitted is often and easily encouraged.

‘Once assisted suicide is approved by the law, a key protection of human life falls away. Pressure mounts on those who are nearing death, from others or even from themselves, to end their life in order to take away a perceived burden of care from their family, for the avoidance of pain, or for the sake of an inheritance,’ says Cardinal Vincent. ‘I know that, for many people, there is profound fear at the prospect of prolonged suffering and loss of dignity. Yet such suffering itself can be eased. Part of this debate, then, must be the need and duty to enhance palliative care and hospice provision, so that there can genuinely be, for all of us, the prospect of living our last days in the company of loved ones and caring medical professionals. This is truly dying with dignity.

‘The radical change in the law now being proposed risks bringing about for all medical professionals a slow change from a duty to care to a duty to kill.’

Being forgetful of God belittles our humanity

His third point is that being forgetful of God belittles our humanity. For people of faith, our life flows from God and is a gift of the Creator. Cardinal Vincent emphasises that suffering is an intrinsic part of our human journey:

‘The questions raised by this bill go to the very heart of how we understand ourselves, our lives, our humanity,’ he says. ‘Every human being is made in the image and likeness of God. That is the source of our dignity and it is unique to the human person. The suffering of a human being is not meaningless. It does not destroy that dignity.’

One of the fundamental concerns surrounding this bill is that it will give a person of sound will and mind the right to end their life:

‘We know, only too well, that suffering can bring people to a most dreadful state of mind, even driving them to take their own lives, in circumstances most often when they lack true freedom of mind and will, and so bear no culpability. But this proposed legislation is quite different. It seeks to give a person of sound will and mind the right to act in a way that is clearly contrary to a fundamental truth: our life is not our own possession, to dispose of as we feel fit. This is not a freedom of choice we can take for ourselves without undermining the foundations of trust and shared dignity on which a stable society rests.’

This is not a debate that starts and ends next week. Cardinal Vincent concludes by asking Catholics to play an active part in the conversation in the coming months. ‘Have discussions with family, friends and colleagues. And pray,’ he says. ‘Please remember: be careful what you wish for; the right to die can become a duty to die; being forgetful of God belittles our humanity.’

Read the Cardinal’s Pastoral Letter in full here.

Link

Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales – Ten reasons to oppose assisted suicide and euthanasia

Better Off Dead? – Review of BBC1 documentary presented by Liz Carr

Right to Life – Contact your MP