Catholics – and others – believe in ‘compassion’ at the end of life, a word which the proponents of assisted suicide have tried to adopt in this debate. Compassion means to “suffer with” another person. It means accompanying people, especially during sickness, disability and old age, when we know that people are frail and vulnerable. We believe it is wrong for somebody to help somebody else to deliberately kill themselves, and many non-Christians (and, indeed, non-believers) share that view and are opposing this legislation as a result. Assisted suicide is not compassion as Catholic social teaching understands it.
The best form of care we can give people who are in extreme discomfort is palliative care and pain relief together with good human, spiritual and pastoral support. The Church has called for more adequate funding for palliative care and praised the wonderful work of the hospice movement. The evidence suggests that assisted suicide undermines the provision of palliative care.
Related to this, it is important to note that the proponents of assisted suicide use, repeatedly, the phrase “assisted dying”. Many in the media, including the BBC, have adopted this too. Assisted dying is not the right phrase to use – assisted dying means helping somebody in the last stage of life. It does not mean helping them to commit suicide. The proponents also argue that the majority of the population are in favour of assisted dying. This is at least partly because people who are asked questions about “assisted dying” in surveys often believe that “assisted dying” simply means pain relief and palliative care. We should be clear that this is a bill about “assisted suicide” – that is allowing doctors to help patients kill themselves.
To mix metaphors, there is no doubt that this bill is a trojan horse and will lead to a slippery slope – as any bill in this area would. The proponents argue that it will benefit a small number of suffering people who will be able to rationally take a decision about assisted suicide and nobody else need worry.
However, all priests and a huge number of lay people who, in different ways, come into contact with the elderly, sick and disabled know that they are vulnerable and can easily be pressurised to do things which are against their better nature. This may result from hints from relatives or conversations initiated by doctors. The legalisation of assisted suicide would create huge pressure on society’s most vulnerable people.
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Photo: Maurice from Zoetermeer, Netherlands, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
