By the Catholic Medical Association
The president of the Catholic Medical Association, Dr Mike Delany has appealed to Members of Parliament to oppose legislation to bring in assisted suicide when the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is given its second reading on 29 November.
Dr Delany commented that assisting a person to end their own life is contrary to the Christian understanding of the sanctity of life and the role of medical practitioners and that it is also contrary to our understanding of the meaning of compassion. Compassion means to “suffer with” another person. It involves accompanying people, especially during sickness, disability and old age when we know that people are frail and vulnerable. Such accompaniment is the responsibility of all those who care for those who are suffering, including medical practitioners. We believe it is wrong for doctors to help somebody to deliberately kill themselves and that such actions have no place in a compassionate society.
In common with many others, we see the dangers of the legalisation of assisted suicide for the future of palliative care and we also fear the progressive relaxation of the proposed safeguards. However, there are particular concerns for the medical profession.
This legislation has the potential to fundamentally change the relationship between doctor and patient. Doctors will be allowed to initiate a conversation about assisting patients to commit suicide if they meet the criteria. No doctor should be allowed to initiate a conversation that leads to him or her offering to help a patient kill themselves.
We reject entirely the language of the proponents of the bill who have suggested that assisted dying “does not shorten life, it shortens death.” This changes fundamentally how we think about people in the later stages of life who are very much alive and have a right to the care they need to live in dignity.
The conscientious objection clause proposed in the bill is very weak. Any doctor who refuses to participate in discussions about assisted suicide will be required to refer the patient to another doctor who will. This means that any doctor, upon qualification, will be required by law to co-operate in the deliberate taking of the life of another human being: if not in person, by referral to another doctor. No Catholic doctor could do that in good conscience.
We are concerned too for the Catholic hospices and care homes in which we work. It would seem likely that, if the bill becomes law, they will be required to co-operate with assisted suicide. This would create major problems for our Catholic care sector, which has genuine compassion at its heart, and it would undermine further the provision of palliative care in this country.
On these grounds, and on many others, I ask all Catholic healthcare workers to write to their MPs to oppose this bill.
There is a simple online mechanism to contact your MP. It takes little more than a few minutes to input your postcode, make sure the suggested text suits your viewpoint and submit your message to ask your MP to stop assisted suicide being rushed into law.
Click here to contact your MP via the Right to Life UK website.
