Assisted suicide: Lords debate

Evangelicals are awaiting the result of a House of Lords debate on assisted suicide scheduled for late October.

The bill aims to legalise assisted suicide in England and Wales for terminally ill adults with six months or less left to live.

A recent letter in the Daily Telegraph from palliative care consultants ‘of the next generation’ from across the country said: ‘Offering someone the option to die is akin to saying that we do not value their life, or feel that it may not be worth living. Even worse, patients may feel that the motivation for offering this option is cost driven … The overwhelming majority of palliative care doctors do not want the introduction of assisted dying and will not participate it if is brought in.’

Also writing recently in the British Medical Journal, the Revd Dr Brendan McCarthy (see photo), Church of England National Adviser on Medical Ethics and Health and Social Care Policy, said: ‘The Church of England does not oppose enabling people to die well; that is a goal shared with every palliative care professional, hospice worker and healthcare chaplain. Its opposition is to a change in the current law on assisted suicide… Better palliation, not assisted suicide, should be our goal.’