Monday 3 August 2015

Assisted Dying Bill

On Friday 11 September 2015 the House of Commons will be debating and voting on a Private Member’s Bill to legalise assisted suicide. This will put the most vulnerable people in our society at risk. You can find out more here.

Our bishops are calling on Catholics to write to their MPs to express our opposition to this proposed legislation. Our own MP has promised to vote against the bill. In his reply to my email about this he said:
In Britain, we lead the world in palliative care. Our response to the physical and emotional pain of terminal illness must be to show compassion by extending and developing this further. Not by letting people die when they most need encouragement and assistance to live. As evidence from other countries has shown, a right to die would for many be a duty to die, and we must fiercely resist this law for that reason.
However, MPs do talk among themselves about what volume of messages they are getting from their constituents on matters like this. So I would strongly encourage you to write. Our bishops have made this very easy. Just click here to find a very simple way of emailing your MP about this.