Parliament is considering a Private Members’ Bill to allow terminally ill adults assistance “to end their own life”. Do Catholic Christians like me have anything distinctive to say about this?
The answer is both No and Yes. Whatever the language used to sweeten it, the Bill facilitates suicide. The most powerful arguments against this are open to any agnostic. The law is there to protect the vulnerable, whatever their religion.
How will a mother feel when her children say, “It’s OK by us, if you choose to die”? What message will we send to others in despair, who also feel a burden, but are not physically ill? Do we really want our doctors to be part-time executioners, our pharmacists dispensers of poison? The staff of our nursing homes collaborators in killing? Stashes of lethal toxins in the cupboards of families under pressure? And what of the times when the medication doesn’t do what it says on the tin? That is the detailed reality of assisted suicide, available for any non-believer to inspect.
Christianity, though, offers a bigger picture. We find our freedom in belonging - to families and friends, communities and churches, and God. Looking after the sick and frail becomes a privilege. Suffering and dying are part of a journey of hope. This week we celebrate All Saints and All Souls. We are members of a family that includes even the dead. They too, like the poorly or desperate, are our brothers and sisters, alive even now in God.
Written by Sr Margaret Atkins, Boarbank Hall, Allithwaite.
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