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