This autumn assisted dying is very much a hot topic in the UK. The ‘Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults’ was initially introduced in the House of Lords by Lord Falconer of Thoroton. Then on October 16 2024 the assisted dying bill was formally launched in the House of Commons on 16 October 2024. The Bill was introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbetter. Sir Keir Starmer, our Labour Prime Minister, said he is “very pleased” that Members of Parliament will get the chance to debate and vote on the issue of assisted dying. As far back as 2015 Starmer had supported an assisted dying bill. Not surprisingly he is giving his backing to the present Bill which will give the terminally ill people in England and Wales the right to choose to end their life.
However, most Christians are quite clear that assisted dying is contrary to their belief that life is given by God and that all human beings are made “in the image of God” (see Genesis 1.27). In a way which is not true of animals, human beings are therefore valuable and need to be protected against assisted dying. Assisted dying is a form of killing, and traditionally Christians have viewed it therefore as a form of murder. In the past the penalty for murder warranted the death penalty – and even today it normally leads to life in prison with no remission. In the Old Testament there are only four exceptions to killing not leading to the death penalty: accidental killing, killing in self-defence, killing in the context of a holy war, and of course the exercise of capital punishment.
In the light of Genesis 1.27 and the sixth commandment, ‘You shall not murder’ (Exodus 20.13) Cardinal Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, wrote to all Roman Catholic churches asking them to write to their local MP expressing their opposition to the bill on assisted dying. This in turn galvanised me to write to Marie Goldman, our Liberal Democrat MP in Chelmsford. In my email I said:
I am writing to express my deep concern regarding the proposal coming before Parliament that euthanasia [otherwise known as assisted dying] should be legalised. From a Christian perspective euthanasia contravenes one of the Ten Commandments. What is more, were the bill to be passed then it puts the medical profession in an impossible position for instead of saving life, they are now called to end life. I know that many of your constituents feel very strongly that you should vote against the bill. It is only a small vociferous minority which are wishing to back the bill. I would be most grateful if you would vote against the proposal to legalise euthanasia.
One of the arguments in favour of assisted dying is that compassion for our fellow men and women who are suffering extreme discomfort because of their medical condition dictates that we should all back the present bill. However, thanks to developments in palliative care, there is no reason why anybody should die in pain. The hospices up and down the land are a testimony to that.
However, this does not mean that Christians need to believe that we should do our utmost to keep our loved ones alive. There comes a time when it is right to allow our loved ones to die, not through deliberately ending their lives, but rather allowing nature to take its course. So for instance when my father on 9 February 2000 suffered a major stroke which caused him to totally lose his mind, my mother asked me to go and see the consultant and tell him that on her behalf I was requesting that all further medication be withdrawn. By the end of that week he had died, and my mother and I rejoiced, for we knew that all his suffering was over and that he had passed into the presence of the Lord whom he loved and served for so many years. Of course we grieved, for we missed him dearly. However, we did not grieve his death.
In conclusion, along with most of my fellow Christians I believe that assisted dying can never be right.
Hi Paul,
as usual I appreciate your sharing. As the years accumulate (I’ve just turned 70!) I’m increasingly less certain and sure about much I once held as absolute. Less and less is seen in binary terms. (One of my treasured gifts but infrequently brought out in public, is a mug my daughter bought me with the words stamped into the clay surface, “F___ the Binary”.) That pretty much sums things up!
As one who once served for many years on the executive of NZs largest pro-life organisations I am. 99 percent with you. I just struggle with that word in you header, “never”.
Blessings.
Hi Paul,
Thanks for your thoughts and the stimulation it provides. Both Jim and I know a lady whose son was diagnosed with Huntingdon’s career. (hopefully I have remembered the disease correctly) he had seen others in the family suffer the debilitating results, and chose to jump from beachy head. Could we as God’s people have ministered to his situation better? I believe the church was able to give significant support to his mum.
My mum as a widow lived next door to my fragile sister Margy who depended on her support. She always told mum she hoped mum would not die before her. When mum collapsed in the garden and was taken to Addenbrooks, and was told she needed a pacemaker, although was ambivalent, because of Margy’s need for mum, we encouraged her to have the pacemaker. Margy died at fifty, mum at 99 sits in her armchair humming hymn tunes, but would have better for her to be in heaven.
Having seen much of people suffering as they grow old, I have told my wife that when the time comes I want to go and sit on the seafront on a cold night in my shirt sleeves gazing across to Kent and sing Beaulah Land. My wife told me my plan may run into trouble if the Street Pastors find me!
Issacc Watts wrote: Timorous mortals start and shrink to cross that narrow sea, and linger shivering on the brink and fear to launch away. Its true. St Francis is attributed with the words: Thou most kind and gentle death, seeking to hush our latest breath…. but he was a saint. Honestly, I think the scriptural assertion that death is the last enemy is about right. But I think there is a lack in the public debate of the acknowledgement of the the reality of life in the context of eternity.
Dear Paul,
although I do agree with you, I am a member of the “Verwaltungsrat” of Tabea, the Deaconess House, “Diakoniewerk Tabea” today, an institution founded by our church, Hamburg-Altona Baptist Church in 1899. Today it is an independent institution running a. o. a “Senior Residence” with a department for those who are unable to care for themselves. cf http://www.tabea.de
As the assisted suicide bill is German law since the decission of the Supreme Court, we have to come to grips (excuse the rather slangy phrase) with it, should the situation occur that someone in our house wants it to be carried out.
The minister of Tabea has attended a number of meetings, discussions and legal information sessions on the topic and we disussed it in our Diakonie Ausschuss, a subcommittee to the Verwaltungsrat (Board of Trustees).
There is an agenda of how to proceed if the wish arrises, as the person requiring the assistance has got a legal backing of being assisted. The opening lines of that agende point out that we support life and that this kind of support is not what we want to carry out. However, with the situation being like it is, we have to either send the patients / inhabitants to other institutions or “help” them.
We are thankful that so far there has not been any request. We have, so far, decided in the “Diakonie-Ausschuss” not to make the papers public but to have them hidden but available in case the situation will force us to react. The discussion is still under way and there have so far not been any final decissions.
One – very positive – side affect, however, was to develop a new handout for the staff of how to react and how to assist relatives in the final phase of the patients and after they have died, consolation, assistance, prayer, partoral care by the minister.
If of interest, I think I can upload the papers on this website for discussion, anonymized. I will then try to get the o.k. by our chairman / chairteam.(Vorstand)