A bishop and moral theologian has warned that the NHS must not treat elderly people as a "market" or a "problem" and that so-called "health economists" risk compromising basic moral principles "by killing, harming and abandoning".

Dr Anthony Fisher, who is bishop of Parramatta in Australia and Professor of moral theology and bioethics at Melbourne's John Paul II Institute of Marriage and Family Life, said in a lecture in Oxford yesterday that "age-rationing" - allocating healthcare on the basis of age - is "unjustly discriminatory".

Bishop Fisher, who studied for his doctorate in Oxford, told an audience at the Catholic-run Anscombe Bioethics Centre: "Healthcare systems tell a story of the kind of people we are and wish to be. The inclusion [...] of the elderly reveals attitudes to ageing and the elderly themselves."

Above and homepage: Bishop Fisher speaks in front of an image of Blessed Pope John Paul II. Photo: Anscombe Bioethics Centre