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.’
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.
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 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.’
Diocese of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission 