Assisted suicide bill a ‘failure of the care system’, says care home manager

‘To genuinely help the terminally ill we need an improvement in compassionate, high-quality palliative care, and proper hospice funding,’ said Archbishop of Westminster Richard Moth.

Sr Deirdre, the home manager at St Peter’s Residence, a care home for the elderly run by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Vauxhall, London, said it is “frightening” to see elderly patients fearing they might be a burden to their family or to the care system.

 “They want to be valued,” said Sr Deirdre. “They want to live until they die. They don’t want to die prematurely.

“We get good support from the palliative care specialists. When patients come here, they live, and at the end of that they die. Overwhelmingly, they die peacefully.

“We have doctors to prescribe medication in case somebody’s unwell, or if they’re in pain, or are distressed or agitated. But most of the time we don’t need it because they die normally: happily, peacefully, and surrounded by friends, family, other residents and staff.”

Sr Deirdre said that she herself lives with Stage 4 cancer, which will eventually be terminal: “At the moment I’m having treatment and I’m OK. I’m very appreciative of what the doctors and the nurses are giving me at the hospital, and I know they’re doing their best.

She continued: “Personally, what I fear is for somebody to say to me, ‘Oh, you’ve only got six months to live, how would you like to take a pill now and end it so that you don’t have suffering in the future?’

“I’d rather be offered something that says, ‘We’ll help you to live without pain, without distress, until that time comes so you can die peacefully and naturally’. I don’t want something to help me die. I want something to help me live or to die peacefully when that time comes.

“I think for people to look to take something to die quickly, it’s a failure of care, of the care system, because if they were offered palliative care and support to live, then they wouldn’t be seeking to die.”

Archbishop of Westminster Richard Moth said the “inadequate and uneven provision of palliative care” across the country has been recognised during the debate over the assisted dying bill, even by the prime minister.

“To genuinely help the terminally ill we need an improvement in compassionate, high-quality palliative care, and proper hospice funding.” 

He added that man professional bodies have argued against this bill, including the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the Royal College of Physicians, and that disability rights groups consider it to be dangerous.

Archbishop Moth also said assisted suicide undermines freedom of conscience for medical professionals and care workers, and he urged members of parliament to reject the bill when it returns to the House of Commons tomorrow.

“This bill is wrong in principle and is also deeply flawed. If passed, it could lead to vulnerable people feeling pressured into ending their lives.”

Archbishop of Liverpool John Sherrington said he was “concerned about vulnerable people, those who are living with disability who are concerned about it, and also the fear of coercion”.

He also warned that the bill does not include an opt-out clause that would permit Catholic nursing homes, hospices, and others to be able to opt out of the legislation.

“If they cannot opt out, they may have to close. They have always provided really good and important spiritual pastoral care at the end of life.”

Bishop of Portsmouth Philip Egan also said the bill would put pressure on doctors and staff who care for the dying, and warned that “it’s easy to imagine a future in which doctors advise patients to seek suicide rather than treatment”.

“Assisted suicide would put huge pressure on the dying, the elderly, and the most vulnerable. It would tempt them to feel they are a burden, an inconvenience, a drain on the NHS.

“In Britain, what we need is better palliative care. Britain already leads the way on this, yet to legalise assisted suicide would completely undermine palliative care and the work of care homes.”

Bishop Egan also referred to the situation of other countries where assisted suicide has become legal, and warned of “mission creep”.

“More categories of persons will be eligible, not just the terminally ill, but the mentally ill, those with dementia or depression, sick babies, the disabled, and so on.

“No government in the world can stop this. In Canada already, more than 5 per cent of deaths are by lethal injection.”

Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle Stephen Wright said, “I’m against assisted suicide. Life is a gift from God. Every person is made in the image and likeness of God.

“Every person, no matter what their position in life is or whatever they may be going through, has a God-given dignity that must be respected. It’s not for human beings to kill one another in any context.

“I really do encourage you to contact your MPs and ask them to oppose this bill. Morals and ethics aside, it’s a bad bill. It fails to provide safeguards to the most vulnerable in society. This bill is not necessary and it is wrong.”

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