Cardinal criticises 'deeply irresponsible' assisted suicide bill

Photo: © Mazur/cbcew.org.uk

Source: Archbishops House

Cardinal Vincent Nichols has called the way in which the assisted suicide bill is being handled 'deeply irresponsible' and a 'shambles'.

Speaking to Christian Fellowship, a group at News UK, the Cardinal expressed serious concern that MPs had only spent a few hours debating assisted suicide when they spent more than a hundred times longer debating banning fox hunting in 2004.

He said: "I believe it is deeply irresponsible of any government to allow a change of this magnitude to be carried out without due, proper, government-supported parliamentary process.. I think what's happening, if it came to pass, would be the biggest change that this country has seen for many, many decades at least, probably more. On the back of what - five, six, seven hours' debate?

"I was told that the fox hunting bill [in 2004] endured 700 hours of debate."

Despite these concerns, he hoped that the bill could still be defeated as it makes it way through the Houses of Parliament: 'I don't think that story's over yet.'

The Hunting Act 2004 passed after 700 hours of parliamentary debate and a government inquiry - the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill, passed on November 29 by 330 to 275 last year after five hours of debate.

Cardinal Nichols added that there was "something deeply lacking in a government that isn't prepared to guide and sponsor,if it wants to, this process of legal change."

In October last year, Cardinal Nichols issued a pastoral letter to his diocese, encouraging Catholics to contact their MPs ahead of the debate. In it, he raised concerns, saying: "the right to die can become a duty to die."

He said: "Once assisted suicide is approved by the law, a key protection of human life falls away. Pressure mounts on those who are nearing death, from others or even from themselves, to end their life in order to take away a perceived burden of care from their family, for the avoidance of pain, or for the sake of an inheritance.'

"The radical change in the law now being proposed risks bringing about for all medical professionals a slow change from a duty to care to a duty to kill."