Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa has backed the right of the terminally ill to be able to legally end their lives.
Writing in England’s Observer newspaper, Archbishop Tutu said laws preventing this are an affront to those affected and their families.
Calling for a “mind shift” in the right to die debate, he said he reveres the sanctity of life, but not at all costs.
The archbishop condemned as “disgraceful” the treatment of his old friend Nelson Mandela, who was kept alive through numerous painful hospitalisations.
On July 18, the UK’s House of Lords will debate an assisted dying bill, which has been publicly supported by former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey.
But current Anglican primate Archbishop Justin Welby has reaffirmed his church’s traditional hostility to any move that would endanger the principle of the sanctity of life.