The UK’s highest-ranking Catholic bishop has urged churchgoers to lobby their MPs to oppose proposed changes in the law around assisted dying in England and Wales, warning people: “be careful what you wish for”.
In a letter to be read out in the churches of his diocese, Cardinal Vincent Nichols said the proposed changes risk bringing about “a slow change from a duty to care to a duty to kill” for medical professionals.
The Labour MP Kim Leadbeater will formally introduce a private member’s bill on the issue to the House of Commons on Wednesday. MPs will vote on the issue at the bill’s second reading on 29 November.
Nichols’s letter goes on to say that in countries where assisted dying has been legalised, the circumstances in which it is permitted have been “widened and widened”.
He said changing the law could result in those who are near to death feeling under pressure to end their lives to relieve family members of a “perceived burden of care”, to avoid pain or “for the sake of 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,” he added.
The archbishop of Westminster continued: “The suffering of a human being is not meaningless. It does not destroy that dignity. It is an intrinsic part of our human journey, a journey embraced by the eternal word of God, Christ Jesus himself. He brings our humanity to its full glory precisely through the gateway of suffering and death.”
Leadbeater has said the current law on assisted dying is “not fit for purpose”, with campaigners labelling it “unbelievably cruel”.
Earlier this year, before he became prime minister, Keir Starmer said he was in favour of changing the law. He made a promise to the TV presenter Esther Rantzen, who has terminal lung cancer and is campaigning on the issue, that if he became prime minister he would ensure time in parliament to debate the issue and allow a free vote. Starmer kept that promise after his election win in July.
Those in favour of changing the legislation say people who are terminally ill or in severe pain should be allowed the choice to die with dignity and at a time of their choosing.
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Sarah Wootton, the chief executive of Dignity in Dying, said earlier this year: “Assisted dying is a movement whose time has come. The prime minister has doubled down on his promise to make time for this debate, and dying people will be holding him to account; they simply do not have time to wait. As reform grows closer in the Isle of Man, Jersey and Scotland, we are on the brink of historic change across the British Isles.”
Under current law, assisting someone to end their life is a criminal offence in England and Wales, carrying a maximum prison sentence of up to 14 years. Moves to legalise assisted dying are under way in Scotland, the Isle of Man and Jersey.
This will be the first time the topic has been debated in the House of Commons since 2015, when an assisted dying bill was defeated.
