An alliance of Christian and Jewish clerics has voiced support for plans to change the law to allow a form of assisted suicide in the UK.
In a letter to the Daily Telegraph, several [Anglican] bishops, priests and rabbis argued 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 insisted “nothing sacred” about suffering in itself and no one should be “obliged to endure it”.
But those who want to continue life until the last breath should be supported, they noted.
Signatories of the letter 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 were also among the signatories – despite the Church of England’s official opposition to a change in the law – as was Baroness Richardson, first female President of the Methodist Conference.
Rabbi Danny Rich, chief executive of Liberal Judaism and Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain a leading figure in Reform Judaism, also supported the call.
UK MPs are due to debate an assisted dying bill tabled by Labour’s 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.
Most of the major religious groups in the UK have voiced opposition.
Last month, Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster said “the right to die is someone else’s duty to kill”.
Preaching at Lourdes, Cardinal Nichols quoted Pope Francis: “It is a great lie to try and convince people that life lived with serious illness is not worth living.”
The cardinal continued: “This is why we oppose those who wish to pass laws assisting suicide, giving people the right to die when they want.”
Sources
- The Telegraph
- The Tablet
- Image: The Guardian