A Catholic bioethics institute has criticised a new UK parliamentary report for whitewashing the uncontrollable spread of euthanasia and assisted suicide and the horrendous abuses of the elderly in countries where such practices are legalised.
The report by Health and Social Care committee did not recommend a change to UK’s law against assisted suicide – but it also failed to heed widespread evidence of the expansion of euthanasia and assisted suicide and the futility of safeguards wherever they have been introduced.
The report was severely criticised by the Anscombe Bioethics Centre, an institute serving the Catholic Church in Britain and Ireland, for claiming falsely there was no evidence of a slippery slope in jurisdictions where assisted suicide and euthanasia have been legalised.
“This is inaccurate,” it said in a statement.
“Canada established a law in 2016 that was restricted to people whose death was ‘reasonably foreseeable’ but in 2021 this was extended to include people with ‘unbearable suffering’. Other countries have expanded their law in other ways: to waive waiting periods; to scrap residence requirements; to include minors.”
Professor David Albert Jones, director of the Anscombe, added: “It is disappointing that the committee was not more critical of those from countries that have legalised assisted suicide and who claim to see no evil and hear no evil.
“There is ample evidence of adverse effects in these countries: people having their lives ended without consent; increases in unassisted suicide; people being refused assisted living but offered ‘assisted dying’; people seeking death not because of physical suffering but because they feel a burden to others.
“However, I am glad that MPs have resisted the pressure to call for a change in the law.
“There are many problems in end-of-life care but legalising assisted suicide would not solve these problems and changing the law in this way would further endanger many vulnerable people.”
The 1961 Suicide Act encouraging or assisting someone to take their own life is punishable by up to 14 years in jail, by a well-funded and celebrity-endorsed campaign is pressing for a change in the law to give doctors power to end their patients’ lives.
Auxiliary Bishop John Sherrington of Westminster – who serves as the bishops’ conference for life issues – said he welcomed the decision of the committee not to recommend the legalisation of assisted suicide.
“The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales opposes its legalisation out of concern for the good of every person in society, the protection of this good in law, and the spiritual and pastoral care of the sick and dying,” he said.
“The act of assisted suicide violates the dignity inherent to every person’s life, which is to be cherished and cared for at all stages until natural death,” the bishop added.
The report’s authors also said hospices in England needed extra money, since the National Health Service only provides about a third of the funding for hospices in the UK.
Baroness Grey-Thompson, the distinguished Paralympian who opposes legalising assisted suicide because of the threat it poses to disabled people, told BBC that palliative care is a “postcode lottery” in England.
“We need to make sure people are protected,” she said.
Bishop Sherrington pointed out the committee’s report said experts have noted that there have been major problems in safeguarding the vulnerable and those without full mental capacity when assisted suicide and euthanasia has been introduced in other jurisdictions.
“Recognising the distress and suffering of those who are sick and vulnerable, I welcome the committee’s recommendation that the accessibility and provision of palliative and end of life care needs to be improved – something the Catholic Church has consistently called for,” the bishop said.
The Catholic Union submitted evidence to the inquiry noting a survey into assisted suicide which found that 88 per cent of responders did not want to see the law changed.
“There is a lot that needs to be considered when it comes to end of life care. A good place to start would be upholding the commitment to universal access to palliative care in the Health and Care Act,” said Baroness Hollins, the president of the Catholic Union.
“The report recommends that this is in place before there is any consideration of changing the law. The fact that there are very few recommendations is in some ways, quite helpful as it requires people to read and consider the evidence rather than just reacting to the recommendations,” she said.
Catholic Union director Nigel Parker added that the group has worked hard to highlight the deep concern from the Catholic community in Britain about changing the law on assisted suicide, including “the very real risk of making health and social care a no-go areas for Catholic medical professionals”.
Meanwhile, Care Not Killing – which opposes assisted suicide – said it welcomed the report’s documentation of the dangers of legalising assisted suicide and euthanasia, but was disappointing that the committee did not “come down firmly against changing the law”.
“It heard about the struggle many face with getting the right social care and how disabled people, the vulnerable and elderly find it tough to pay their bills or suffer from isolation and feel like they have become a burden,” said Gordon Macdonald, the chief executive of Care Not Killing.
“Indeed, one expert told the Committee about the clear evidence of the pressure on people who were seen as no longer ‘a useful member of society’ and that this pressure could be nonintentional,” he said in a statement.
“This is exactly what we see in places like Oregon, where a majority ending their lives cite burden on their families as a reason for ending their lives or Canada where 1,700 people cited loneliness as a reason for allowing the state to kill them,” he continued.
Dr Macdonald also said there are many problems with changing the law to legalize state sanctioned killing.
“As we saw in the Netherlands and Belgium limits on who qualifies for an assisted death have been swept away.
“No longer is state aided killing with death row drugs limited to those with less than six months to live, but routinely includes disabled people, those with chronic non-terminal conditions and individuals with mental health problems, such as patients with dementia, treatable depression, anorexia even a victim of sexual abuse,” he said.
Additional reporting by Charles Collins of Crux
(PA Photo)
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