CV NEWS FEED // The United Kingdom Catholic bishops are continuing to urge opposition to a proposed assisted suicide bill that Parliament is set to debate in about three weeks.
The bill, which Labor Party Member of Parliament (MP) Kim Leadbeater sponsored, is 38 pages long. Reuters reported that Parliament will debate the bill on November 29.
The bill lays out criteria that appear to be “safeguards” to keep the practice of assisted suicide limited in scope – but given that assisted suicide always involves the intended death of a person, describing the bill’s provisions as “safeguards” employs an oxymoron. A bill legalizing assisted suicide could never be safe, no matter how strict the criteria in place.
Advocates against assisted suicide, such as Catholic Canadian anti-assisted suicide activist Amanda Achtman, have also pointed out that it is dehumanizing to classify certain persons as eligible for assisted suicide.
“It is dehumanizing, plain and simple,” Achtman previously told CatholicVote. She also indicated that assisted suicide is the wrong answer when trying to help a person who needs support.
“Conceding and capitulating to what is, essentially, suicidal ideation is never a response adequate to the person,” she said.
The Catholic Bishops of the United Kingdom have been vocal in their opposition to legalizing assisted suicide in their country. This week, they are pausing their autumn plenary meeting to pray a Holy Hour together in protection of human life.
>> UK analyst: Catholic Church stands alone against euthanasia bill <<
Cardinal Vincent Nichols, the archbishop of Westminster, said in a statement that legalizing assisted suicide “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,” he continued. “We are a gift of God – a gift that is freely given. Then, when God is ready, we are called back to Him.”
In a video message about the Holy Hour, Cardinal Nichols said, “We’ll be praying that many minds and hearts will be opened to this beautiful and great truth about the value, the importance, the beauty of every person.”
The bishops urged faithful across the nation to join them in prayer on November 13 during the Holy Hour. Cardinal Nichols also urged the faithful to contact their members of Parliament expressing opposition to assisted suicide.
Archbishop John Wilson of the Archdiocese of Southwark reiterated in a video message the importance of taking action and speaking up on behalf of those who cannot do so.
“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,” Archbishop Wilson said. “Because if we don’t stand up and value the dignity of human life, who will?”
Archbishop Wilson urged defending life as the United Kingdom “faces a terrible step of potentially bringing about assisted suicide….” He warned that this legalization “will radically change how our health care practitioners care for us, how others think about us, and how the vulnerable are made to think about themselves.”
He also emphasized that all persons have inherent dignity as everyone is made in God’s image and likeness.
“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,” he said: “Let’s be clear that they are made in the image and likeness of God, that they are loved, that they deserve dignity, and respect.”
