Bishop: Assisted suicide law would undermine health care profession
BISHOP of Elphin Kevin Doran has claimed the Dying with Dignity Bill is an attempt to create legislation allowing for assisted suicide in Ireland and, if passed, will undermine the entire credibility of the healthcare profession.
Speaking on Sunday week last, October 3, at Sligo Cathedral, to mark the Catholic Church’s now annual ‘Day for Life’ established in 2001 by St John Paul II, Bishop Doran said Catholics must consider a more positive repsonse to the care of people who are in the final stages of life.
He said it would be totally unacceptable if any healthcare professionals were expected to perform or be involved in what he said would be assisted suicide.
People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny, who is bringing the Dying with Dignity Bill forward, said Bishop Doran was entitled to express his opinion which is a religious opinion. He accused Bishop Doran of conflating the issue of suicide with assisting the dying.
“That is very unhelpful, they should not be conflated. It is no secret that the Catholic Church oppose the issue of assisting the dying. That’s no secret,” he said on Ocean FM when asked for his reaction Bishop Doran’s comments. Bishop Doran, president of the Irish Bishops’ Conference’s Commission for Life, recalling this year’s Day for Life theme, spoke in the context of what he termed the recent proposal to introduce assisted suicide, both in Ireland and the UK. He said: “The Dying with Dignity Bill which I mentioned is about what is known everywhere else in the world as ‘assisted suicide’.
There is no point calling it anything else. It has been temporarily kicked into touch, but only so that it can be improved. The proposal hasn’t gone away.
“This year’s Day for Life invites us among other things as Christians to reflect critically on the proposal to legalise assisted suicide.
He said once it becomes lawful for one person to participate in ending the life of another, it is presented and perceived as something good to do.
“Instead of being surrounded by love and care, people who are already vulnerable and dependant on others due to their illness are made to feel that they are a burden on their families and on society and that assisted suicide would be the decent thing to do.
“So, instead of accompanying people with compassion, we literally pull the rug from under them.
“The other thing is that wherever assisted suicide has been legalised healthcare professionals are presumed to be available to be the ones to assist simply because they are already licensed to use drugs. “I think we sometimes forget that the only reason that healthcare professionals are given privileged access to drugs is for the express purpose of healing and the relieving of pain. Any suggestion that they should be expected to assist and in certain circumstances, to actually perform the act that ends the life of another person, completely undermines the credibility of the healthcare professions.”
Deputy Kenny told Ocean FM there would be provision for conscientious objectors so someone who works in the health service would not have to be part of that process. He said he thought there was public support for the bill: “I think there is public support when you put all the facts on the table and the facts are that public opinion, which is usually ahead of the politicians most of the time, would be supportive.” He added that “numerous polls done over the last few years suggest that at least two thirds of those polled are in favour of the issue”. “We should have a choice. Whose business is it at the end of the day to deny someone that, not a priest. The Catholic Church is opposed to everything in this country – contraception, divorce, same-sex marriage. This is an institution which has opposed everything in the past 20 years that is progressive. I understand people are against certain things in life for moral reasons, but what are they for, what does the Catholic Church stand for?”