It is unfortunate that the phrase “sanctity of life”, which is at the heart of the Catholic Church’s rejection of euthanasia and assisted suicide, has become like a red rag to a bull among its advocates. They are mainly secularist: they do not want religious belief to have any influence over public policy. In a sense therefore the debate over assisted suicide is a proxy war over the place of religion in the public square. But once one asks why do Catholics and other Christians regard life as so sacred, it emerges that the values being protected by that phrase are about human dignity and human vulnerability. They do not depend on belief in God.