Chief Rabbi backs ‘assisted living’ over assisted dying
THE CHIEF Rabbi has joined the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster in expressing their “profound disquiet” over a new Bill that proposes legalising assisted suicide for terminally ill people with under six months to live.
The Assisted Dying Bill, tabled by Baroness Meacher, gets its second reading in the House of Lords today.
In a joint letter to peers, Archbishop Justin Welby, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, who is President of the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales; and Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said they believed the Bill did not sufficiently protect vulnerable people or set out adequate safeguards.
They also warned that the policy could place many vulnerable people in even more dangerous positions and appealed for people of all faiths and none to join with them — through the “common bond of humanity” — in caring for the most atrisk members of society.
Rejecting the Bill’s proposals, the faith leaders called for measures to make high-quality palliative care available to all at the end of their lives.
The aim of a compassionate society should be “assisted living” rather than an acceptance of assisted suicide, they said.
They wrote: “By the faiths we profess, we hold every human life to be a precious gift of the Creator, to be upheld and protected.
“All people of faith, and those of none, can share our concern that the common good is not served by policies or actions that would place very many vulnerable people in more vulnerable positions.
“We appeal to people of whatever faith or belief to join us through our common bond of humanity in caring for the most vulnerable people within our society.
“In contrast to the proposals in this Bill, we continue to call for measures to make highquality palliative care available to all at the end of their lives. “We believe that the aim of a compassionate society should be assisted living rather than an acceptance of assisted suicide.”