By Peter Pinedo
Washington, DC Newsroom, August 19, 2024 / 4:20 p.m.
Scotland’s Catholic bishops have strongly condemned the proposed assisted suicide bill for the terminally ill. In a statement to the government, they said the bill offered “a quick, cheap alternative” to care and risked making vulnerable and elderly people feel they were “obligated to die”.
In Scotland, as in the rest of the UK, assisted suicide is currently illegal, but if the law is passed, terminally ill adults over the age of 16 could be helped to end their lives.
The bill was introduced in March by Scottish Parliament member Liam McArthur, who said it would give patients more “autonomy, dignity and control” over the end of life and “help make Scotland a more compassionate society”.
In assisted suicide, the patient is provided with the means to commit suicide, so that he or she then acts on his or her own initiative. In many cases, a doctor or other authorized health care provider has the authority to prescribe a lethal dose of a drug for the patient to administer to themselves.
The Catholic Church rejects euthanasia because it is “in serious contradiction to just self-love” and “to love for the living God”.
In their statement to the government, Scotland’s ten Catholic bishops expressed their grave concern about the draft bill. It undermines human dignity and undermines efforts to reduce suicide rates and provide genuine palliative care to terminally ill patients.
The measure requires a patient to be examined by two doctors, both of whom agree that they are mentally healthy and acting free from coercion. However, the bishops said assisted suicide carries an inherent risk of coercing vulnerable people.
They cited a recent study in Oregon that found that more than 40% of people who received medication to assist in dying cited the burden on their family, friends and caregivers as the reason for their suicide attempt.
“This suggests that society is failing those who need help and support most. This results in vulnerable people, including the elderly and disabled, feeling pressured to end their lives to reduce the burden on family, friends, caregivers and the state,” the bishops said. “In such situations, the option of assisted suicide is less about a ‘right’ to die and more about feeling the full burden and expectation of a ‘duty’ to die.”
“To put it bluntly, the proposal offers a quick, cheap alternative to good palliative care,” the bishops wrote. “This is underpinned by claims in Mr McArthur’s bill, which shockingly admits that it is cheaper to end life than to provide care. The focus must be on providing care, not providing a cheap death.”
The bishops also expressed concern that legalising assisted suicide for certain groups would inevitably open the door to further expansion to more individuals and groups.
The bishops stressed that “no one should have the right to euthanasia.”
“No matter how well-intentioned the protections, it is not possible for any government to pass assisted dying laws that include legal protections against future expansion of those laws,” they said. “Once a law is passed allowing assisted dying and/or euthanasia, the so-called protections are eroded and the eligibility criteria expanded to create a system of death on demand and death on prescription, enabled by the state.”
“As other jurisdictions demonstrate, this is a runaway train,” they added.
Currently, assisted suicide is legal in eleven US states, and several others are considering passing laws to legalize the practice.
Peter Pinedo is CNA’s DC correspondent. Peter is a graduate of Franciscan University and previously worked for Texas Right to Life. He is a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve.
