November 21st 2024
Hello everyone and welcome to this week’s video.
Many of us will have been at Remembrance events in the last fortnight. These are important communal occasions when we gather to remember the sacrifices of others. It is heartening that as the generations that fought in two World Wars passes away the determination to remember remains strong. There was a moving account in an old parish magazine from the 1920’s in my parish in Sussex. It spoke of gentle sobs as the names were read out. The population at the time was about 900 and there were 37 names on the World War 1 role of honour, including the son of the then vicar. Everyone was affected in some way by it. Let us pray it doesn’t happen again.
These brave soldiers offered themselves of their own choice. They had a sense of duty which was not misplaced. And it is ideas about choice and duty that lay at the heart of many people’s anxiety about the recently published bill to allow assisted suicide to those who are terminally Ill. Although Christians have learned to be much more compassionate in our response to suicide than former generations, we none the less retain a strong conviction of the sanctity and gift of human life. We believe all human beings have a value: young, old, sick, healthy; those of sound mind and those suffering from dementia or other mental illness. Life is always seen as a gift from God (Gen 2:7, then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being). The Old Testament teaches God alone should take Life (Job 1:21, Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there; the Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord). Humans are not to take the initiative in ending a human life for all humans are made in God’s image (Gen 9:6. Whoever sheds the blood of a human, by a human shall that person’s blood be shed; for in his own image, God made humankind).
It has always been at the heart of a doctor’s vocation to seek to preserve life. Where that preservation becomes impossible, the imperative becomes helping someone to die well as comfortably as possible. I was grateful to see that in action as my father died in France a few months ago. I have never had to watch a loved one suffer in their final moments and completely understand how people would want to avoid that if at all possible. However, even with the limitations of hospice care most people do die well.
The huge danger, and it has been shown in every jurisdiction that starts down this road, is that the commendable desire to relieve suffering quickly morphs into vulnerable people feeling they ought to end their lives so as not to be a burden. Oregon in the USA, with legislation similar to what is proposed, has seen a significant increase in people who elect for assisted suicide saying that they feel like a burden. From 12% in 1998 to 43% in 2023. Many people are in coercive relationships and elder abuse is a major issue. One of our church wardens told me recently of his aunt in Canada who chose assisted suicide, long before her illness would have incapacitated her, and despite the pleas of family not to. She was visited by the local doctor (known as Doctor death in the town – because that was now all he did) who administered a sedative followed by a lethal injection. There is growing evidence that even when sedated such a departure is not as painless and comfortable as is promised. The cocktail of drugs that will be required if this measure becomes law here is also deeply troubling. Canada is now at the forefront of extending the right to have someone assist your suicide far beyond life threatening conditions to a range of mental illnesses which may be transient.
I appreciate there are some Christians who support this limited change. However, unusually for the Church of England, the last two votes on this issue in General Synod were overwhelmingly against. If you are opposed to this, I would urge you to write to your MP, as I have. In my view, leaving aside the theological conviction, such a move runs huge risks in diminishing our respect for one another and threatening the vulnerable. The offer of choice for some may in the end for many prove to be no choice at all.
+Richard