Assisted dying is not a sin, say religious leaders

RELIGIOUS teachings that elevate suffering and pain to something “sacred” should not be used to prevent terminally ill people taking their own lives, leading Christian and Jewish clerics have insisted.

An alliance of bishops, priests and rabbis have broken ranks with the religious establishment to voice support for plans to change the law to allow a form of assisted suicide in the UK for the first time.

In a letter to The Daily Telegraph, they argue that far from being a sin, helping terminally ill people to commit suicide should be viewed simply as enabling them to “gracefully hand back” their lives to God.

There is, they insist “nothing sacred” about suffering in itself and no one should be “obliged to endure it”. Signatories of the letter, in support of a bill to be debated by MPs next month, include Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, who stunned the Church of England last year when he announced that he had changed his mind on the issue.

The Bishop of Buckingham, the Rt Rev Alan Wilson, and a handful of Anglican clerics are also among the signatories – despite the Church of England’s official opposition to a change in the law. Rabbi Danny Rich, chief executive of Liberal Judaism, Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, a leading figure in Reform Judaism, and Baroness Richardson, President of the Methodist Conference, are also supporting the move.

Their intervention came as the calls for a change in the law were underlined by the death of one cancer sufferer who took his own life in Switzerland hours after announcing his intention to do so on the front page of The Sun newspaper. Bob Cole, 68, died at the Dignitas clinic 18 months after his wife, Ann Hall, took her life there.

MPs are due to debate an Assisted Dying Bill tabled by the Labour backbencher Rob Marris next month. It would allow people thought to have no more than six months to live and a “settled intention” to end their life to be allowed to be given a lethal dose of drugs on the authority of two doctors.

While most of the major religious groups in the UK oppose assisted dying, some polls suggest a majority of people who identify themselves with a faith are in favour of relaxing the law.

The signatories argue that their reli- gious faith encourages them to back assisted dying.

“We value life as a precious gift of God, but also uphold the right of individuals who are approaching their last few months to gracefully hand back that gift if they feel the quality of their life is about to deteriorate beyond the point at which they want to continue,” they write. “There is nothing sacred about suffering.”