Church leaders have expressed deep disappointment after the House of Commons voted in favour of legalising assisted suicide.
Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed at its Third Reading on Friday, albeint with a narrow majority that had been reduced by greater than a half.
It will now progress to the House of Lords where it faces further scrutiny before being returned to the Commons.
Sarah Mullally, the Bishop of London and a former Chief Nursing Officer for England, expressed disappointment that the bill had passed despite “mounting evidence that it’s unworkable and unsafe and poses a risk to essentially the most vulnerable people in our society”.
“These unresolved concerns were raised in lots of speeches by MPs today and are demonstrated by the reduced Commons majority in favour,” she said.
“If enacted, this laws would come into force amid serious shortfalls in adult social care, a postcode lottery in palliative care and well documented pressures on the NHS, multiplying the potential risks to essentially the most vulnerable.
“It doesn’t prevent terminally sick individuals who perceive themselves to be a burden to their families and friends from selecting ‘assisted dying. And it will mean that we became a society where the state fully funds a service for terminally sick people to finish their very own lives but shockingly only funds around one third of palliative care.”
She repeated earlier calls for improved quality and access to palliative care reasonably than funding assisted suicide.
“Every person is of immeasurable and irreducible value, and may give you the chance to access the care and support that they need – a principle that I do know is shared by those all faiths and none,” she said.
“We must oppose a law that puts the vulnerable in danger and as a substitute work to enhance funding and access to desperately needed palliative care services.”
Gavin Calver, head of the UK Evangelical Alliance, said on social media that he was “utterly devastated that Parliament has voted in favour of the assisted dying bill”.
“An awful end to a terrible week in Westminster for those of us who imagine passionately within the sanctity of life. Lord have mercy,” he said.
Archbishop John Sherrington, Catholic Church’s lead bishop for all times issues, said he was concerned in regards to the way forward for palliative care and Catholic-run hospices “not least because experience suggests that, unless there are explicit protections, hospices could also be required to cooperate with assisted suicide”.
“If this were to occur, the long run of many Catholic institutions may very well be under threat,” he said.
“This will not be the tip of the parliamentary process, and we should always not lose hope. We ask the Catholic community to proceed to hope for members of parliament whilst they consider this laws and to hope that government will act to advertise and protect life from conception until natural death.
“We have expressed the view, during this debate, that real compassion involves accompanying those that need care, especially during sickness, disability and old age.
“The vocation to care is at the guts of the lives of so many individuals who take care of their family members and is the sign of a really compassionate society.
“As we stated after the second reading, it is crucial that we nurture and renew the innate call that many individuals need to compassionately take care of others.”
