We have really lost our way if all we can offer people is assisted dying
Bishop: Our care for vulnerable a measure of humanity
THE Bishop of Elphin has condemned proposals to legislate for assisted dying, saying it shows society has ‘really lost its way’.
In his homily for the Mass of the Chrism in Sligo on Spy Wednesday, Bishop Kevin Doran criticised recent moves to legislate for assisted suicide and euthanasia in Ireland.
Bishop Doran told his parishioners that it is ‘understandable’ that people facing chronic or terminal illness can believe that they might be better off dead.
‘But a society which has nothing more to offer to people than to assist them in ending their own lives, has really lost its way,’ he told the congregation.
‘Our care for the most vulnerable among us is a measure of our humanity. We see this very clearly in the healing ministry of Jesus.
‘Down through the ages, the ministry of healing has always been an integral part of the mission of the Church.’
A special Oireachtas committee earlier this month recommended that the Government legalise assisted dying for those with only months left to live.
Bishop Doran said that doctors and nurses along with chaplains, carers, family members and friends, ‘form communities of care’ around those who are sick.
‘Alongside the dialysis, the chemotherapy, the scans and the stents, people who are sick need to know, above all, that they are loved and that they will not be abandoned, whatever happens.
‘That becomes especially important when there is nothing more that medical science can do.’
Last year the Irish Catholic Bishops made an appeal ‘in the strongest terms’ to politicians on the committee developing the recommendations.
‘In reality it is an abdication of the responsibility of society to support people who are terminally ill and their families, in living the final days and weeks of life as fully and richly as possible,’ the bishops said.
Bishop Doran said this week that the time spent with those who are sick, ‘listening to them, providing essential care, sharing memories, and, perhaps, praying with them, that we continue the healing ministry of Jesus. In this way, we bear witness in action to the fact that there is no such thing as a life without value.’
The Oireachtas committee’s recommendations on assisted dying were published earlier this month. The crossparty committee held public hearings on the issues for nine months and recommended that Ireland legislates to allow assisted dying in certain circumstances.
However, it is unlikely that legislation will be progressed in the lifetime of this government, which has just one year left in its term.
The recommendation from the Oireachtas committee was hailed as a ‘breakthrough moment’ by Tom Curran, widow of campaigner Marie Fleming who lost her landmark case against the State when she wanted to travel to Switzerland to end her life as a chronic sufferer with multiple sclerosis.
Mr Curran, who is a director with end-of-life organisation Exit International, called the recommendations a ‘move in the right direction’.
But Hope Ireland, a coalition of medical professionals and disability rights advocates who are against assisted dying being introduced in Ireland, said they find the recommendations from the committee ‘troubling’.
‘No such thing as a life without value’