Parishes to get leaflets on assisted dying

The Church is to step up its campaign against the legalisation of assisted dying by sending leaflets to every parish in the country. “Sense and Nonsense on ‘Assisted Dying’” lists the Church’s answers to common questions on the subject.

The document’s circulation coincides with the passage through Parliament of a private member’s bill tabled by the former Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, which seeks to legalise assisted dying. The bill has had its first reading in the House of Lords, and it is due to have a second reading this spring.

But the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales said that Catholics should be fully briefed on church teaching around the issue as it becomes more prominent, citing as ­examples recent media coverage of Belgium’s decision to legalise euthanasia for children, high-profile court cases and a storyline in the television soap opera Coronation Street in which a ­terminally ill character took her own life.

The leaflet warns that legalising assisted dying could put vulnerable people at risk and would be open to abuse.

“Some terminally ill people might feel under pressure to end their lives, either from others or from feeling that they should remove a care or financial burden from their families. Others might wish to do so as a result of depression, a common feature of terminal illness. A ‘right to die’ could become a ‘duty to die’,” it argues.

The document states that doctors oppose the legalisation of assisted dying and do not regard it as a proper part of clinical practice. It added that only a very small number of Britons sought to travel abroad to end their lives. But the charity Dignity in Dying, which is campaigning for a change in the law, said that the Q&A was unhelpful and inaccurate. Chief executive Sarah Wootton said that the majority of Catholics did support assisted dying, citing a YouGov survey from 2013.

“Unfortunately the leaflet’s Q&A is unhelpful as it is replete with inaccuracies and errors,” she said. “Doctors do regard assisted dying as a proper part of clinical practice … A Pulse  magazine [trade publication for GPs] poll recently found that 69 per cent of GPs wanted the Royal College of General Practitioners to change its opposed stance on assisted dying.”

Lord Falconer’s bill should be scrutinised, she added, but the debate should be based on evidence rather than “imagined fears”.