In a pastoral letter to the people and priests of the Diocese of Portsmouth, Bishop Philip Egan, has made a passionate call to action urging Catholics and those of goodwill to oppose assisted suicide before it’s too late. Bishop Egan offers what he calls four plain reasons, based on common sense, and a further two reasons explaining why the Church teaches that assisted suicide and euthanasia are profoundly wrong.
The letter was read in the parishes of the Portsmouth diocese on 26/27 October 2024.
Dear brothers and sisters, especially those of you caring for the sick and the dying. I speak to you today because our country faces a lethal choice. I refer to the bill before Parliament to legalise what they call ‘assisted dying’. I prefer to call it for what it is, assisted suicide – helping someone to kill themselves.
‘Thou shalt not kill’ is an instinctive principle written into every human heart. It grounds the laws that govern every civilised society on Earth. It’s the teaching of all major religions, and it is fundamental to Christian morality and Catholic social teaching. Yet now, campaigners such as Exit International want to change this natural law to allow killing in certain circumstances. They’re conducting an intensive campaign in the media, highlighting sad and difficult cases and making emotional pitches. Yet if we yield to this and permit killing, we will cross a line from which there is no return. Like using nuclear weapons once deployed, it’s too late. There’s only escalation.
Let me give you four plain reasons why assisting assisted suicide and euthanasia are wrong. These four reasons will make appeal to reason, that is to common sense. I will then add two more reasons that also appeal to faith, demonstrating why assisted suicide and euthanasia is gravely immoral and an offence against God.
The option of assisted suicide would put intolerable pressure on the most vulnerable, upon the sick, the elderly, the disabled, the dying. It would tempt them to feel that they are an increasing burden and a financial drain on their families and others. They might start thinking it would be best to die. In other words, the right to die inescapably becomes a pressure to die and then a duty to die.
To legalise assisted suicide would completely undermine palliative care and the work of care homes. It could spell the end of hospices since it would be cheaper, more efficient, and far less trouble to kill someone or to permit them to kill themselves, than to care for them and generously fund their care.
Assisted suicide would place an unacceptable and immoral demand on medical staff, expecting them to become accessories to a killing. It would undermine the trust we normally place in our doctors, making us suspicious of their motives. It would darken the atmosphere of medical wards that care for the elderly, and it would inexorably lead to euthanasia – the right to make another person die when difficult cases need to be decided by consultants and relatives, or lawyers and the courts. No wonder this legislation is opposed by more than 8 out of 10 doctors and palliative care specialists. It’s easy to imagine a future in which doctors advise patients to seek suicide rather than treatment.
If the legislation is passed, even with the strictest limits for now, the thresholds of eligibility will keep creeping forward to cover ever more categories of persons, such as the mentally ill, those with dementia or depression, the severely disabled, sick babies, and so on. There are no limits, and fixed safeguards are unworkable. No government could guarantee there would not be mission creep. In fact, mission creep is happening in every jurisdiction where it’s legal. In Canada, for example, 5% of deaths are now by lethal injection. In other words, suicide, free on the NHS, would in time become socially acceptable – normal.
So four plain reasons, I could give more. Let me now add two further reasons why, as Catholics, we believe assisted suicide and euthanasia are gravely sinful.
Suicide is a grave offence against God, against neighbour, and against self, against God, who in his love has given us the gift of life. So life is not ours to dispose of. Against neighbour, because it unjustly breaks the ties of solidarity within family and with others to whom we have obligations. And against self, because it contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate his or her life. Suicide is totally against the law of love.
Suicide is gravely sinful, although the church has always shown compassion to those who take their lives, relying on God’s mercy whilst wondering whether they were fully aware of what they were doing. Yet when suicide is done with full knowledge and deliberate consent, as in an assisted suicide, it’s clearly a mortal sin. Likewise, assisting someone kill themselves is also a mortal sin. How would it be possible to offer them the last sacraments? What justification could a person make when crossing into eternity after death, they meet the living Lord to give an account of their life and their death.
Campaigners for assisted suicide argue persuasively. They say that people should have a right to make their own decisions about their lives, including when and how they die. Yet civilised societies also have to balance personal freedom with public safety. This is why, for instance, our roads have speed limits.
They also argue that the terminally ill fear severe pain, the loss of dignity, and the poor quality of life, whereas assisted suicide would offer a quick end to physical suffering and emotional distress. Yet, modern medicine means that no one need die without dignity. It is true, frailty, pain, infirmity are a difficult trial. Yet, thanks be to God for the amazing advances medical science has made. Britain is a leader in palliative care with methods and drugs that have the capability to manage pain right to the end. Care is the answer, not suicide. We should continue investing in good palliative care. Care shows real love for the terminally ill, acknowledging their eternal value.
Again, some argue that euthanasia for those with little hope of recovery would ease the pressure on the health services. For instance, a politician in Guernsey recently argued that considerable savings could be realised if assisted suicide were introduced. Yet as this demonstrates, legalising assisted suicide and euthanasia only opens the door to abuse. If we love and care for someone, efficiency and cost saving is irrelevant. How can helping someone to kill themselves be compassionate? This is evil, masquerading as kindness.
Dear friends, dear diocese of Portsmouth, I’m asking you to mobilise.
I offer you a letter for you to send to your MP to ask him or her to vote against this sinister proposal. All you need to do is write your name and address on the top, put it in an envelope, and pop it into the post. Or you can download it from the diocesan website and send it by email.
In today’s Gospel, the blind beggar cried, “Son of David, Jesus, have pity on me.” That’s our prayer, too. To permit killing is wrong. It is to cross the line. It would be a shift of historic significance. It would capitulate to the very ideology this country fought against in the Second World War. So we need to mobilise. We need to act. We need to campaign – and I provided you with materials to help – and we need to pray.
Please attend Mass, please undertake fasting, please offer every day a decade of the rosary for God’s grace and mercy and for the demise of this bill.
In Corde Jesu, Philip, Bishop of Portsmouth.
