“WE NEED to remind ourselves that every body is of immeasurable value and can’t be diminished by illness, disability, or care costs,” the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, told the House of Lords on Friday when it was considering amendments to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
The Bishop, now also Archbishop-designate of Canterbury, said that “nevertheless many amendments there are to this Bill, the Bill won’t ever be secure.”
She spoke in favour of a bunch of amendments referring to the motivations of individuals in search of an assisted death. The reasons that patients selected an assisted death needs to be recorded, she said, for the higher direction of funding for alternative services. There was, for example, currently no mechanism to stop someone’s in search of an assisted death because they were pain owing to an absence of access to palliative care, she said.
“I hope that every one of us would imagine that, if someone desires to live, then someone in that stage of life must have access to palliative care and the social-care support they need.”
Bishop Mullally also spoke in support of an amendment that may require the Government to supply psychological assessment and support for patients requesting an assisted death, together with their family.
The Bishops of Southwark, Lichfield, Chester, Chelmsford and Manchester were present during her speech, but none of them was called to talk on Friday
The only bishop to have supported the Bill in Lords is the previous Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey (News, 1 November 2024).
The Committee Stage began last Friday, and is scheduled for 2 further days of debate on 5 December and 12 December.
No seving bishops were called to talk in last week’s debate, although several had registering their intention to contribute.
The former Archbishop of York Lord Sentamu made a contribution that, as he himself said, was “very temporary”. It was on the wording of considered one of the lots of of amendments which were recommend, and referred to a patient’s mental “capability” to ask for an assisted death.
“The word ‘ability’ would probably come much nearer to the understanding of an odd person wanting to make a choice about ending their life medically,” Lord Sentamu suggested.
The Committee Stage follows a series of House of Lords Select Committee hearings on the Bill this autumn. The Bishop of Newcastle, Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, was a part of the committee, which heard from expert witnesses.
