Rector’s Reflections
Tuesday 19th November 2024
The Assisted Dying for Terminally Adults Bill
Today I am starting a new series of reflections, on the subject of the Assisted Dying for Terminally Adults bill. This bill is shortly due to be debated by MPs, and it has generated much controversy. This should not surprise us. It deals, quite literally, with issues of life and death, on which there is a wide range of opinion. Is it right for a person who is terminally ill to request and be provided with assistance to end their own life? Some would say that this would never be morally acceptable. Others would say that people who are terminally ill should be given the right to end their own lives, provided that appropriate safeguards are in place. And there would also be those who would say that the terminally ill adults should have the right to end their own life, regardless of whether or not appropriate safeguards are in place.
At this point, let me emphasise that I am aware that for some of my readers the issues surrounding assisted dying are intensely personal. If so, feel free to stop reading at this point – I do not wish to add to any one’s distress.
It is not my desire to comment on the facts of any particular situation, nor to make any judgment on whether or not the decision taken in a particular case is or is not morally commendable from the point of view of Christian ethics. My aim in the current series of reflections is simply to explain why Christians can take different views on what is proposed in the Assisted Dying bill. There are good and faithful Christians on either side of the debate, and I think it is important to remember this.
I would also add that our world likes to paint moral issues in terms of black and white, but so often life is so much more complex than this. I think the seriousness of the issues at stake in the assisted dying bill demands an approach which is careful, sensitive, nuanced and balanced. It’s not the sort of topic where everything can be reduced to a pithy soundbite.
I will start with outlining the provisions of the Assisted Dying bill itself. I will then explain why some Christians might be in favour of the bill. I will then consider why some Christians are opposed to it. I will then offer some reflections by way of conclusion. Let me emphasise once more that it is not my intention to suggest that there is a “correct” view on the topic of assisted dying. My aim is simply to explain why Christians have different views on what is proposed in the current Assisted Dying bill.
So, what is proposed in the Assisted Dying bill? The bill in its current form is much more limited in its scope than one might have thought. It provides a process by which a terminally ill adult “with the capacity to make the decision to end their life” may set out their wish to do so in a written Declaration, which is signed by the adult, witnessed and then counter-signed by two doctors. For these purposes, “terminal illness” means “an inevitably progressive condition which cannot be reversed by treatment …and as a consequence of that terminal illness, [the person] is reasonably expected to die within six months.” The effect of this written Declaration is to permit the provision of medicine which will terminate the life of the terminally ill adult. However, such medicine can only be self-administered by the patient themselves, so the bill does not permit a doctor or other medical professional to administer the medicine which we will terminate the patient’s life. There is also a conscience clause, which expressly provides that no one is under any duty “to participate in anything authorised by this Act to which that person has a conscientious objection”. The bill goes on to provide for the making of further Regulations to deal with particular matters in more detail.
Such is the bill to be debated. Some Christians are happy with its provisions. Why might this be? We shall look at this in more detail in tomorrow’s reflections.