Bishop urges MP to vote against Assisted Dying Bill

May I encourage you to vote against the Private Members’ Bill tomorrow.

Although I do believe in the sanctity of life, my arguments to you are not based on any religious belief, but simply upon the Law of Unintended Consequences.

On the face of it, it seems entirely compassionate to allow those in suffering to make up their own minds about when to die.

However:

• Wouldn’t it be better to invest in life (hospices etc., which desperately need better funding) rather than death?
• How can a doctor possibly diagnose that someone has six months to live?  It is informed guesswork only, and often wrong.
• How can we be certain that someone is making an entirely free and settled choice?  Even one person pushed into death is too high a price.
• What right have families and the nearest and dearest to give input, and the place of their wishes?  No person is an island, as the poet once wrote.
• Why should doctors become ministers of death rather than healing, as two of them are required in this legislation to certify the unknowable?
• How on earth can judges – used to hearing both sides put to them – adjudicate unless there’s a public officer to advocate for life, and not assisted death?
• What will these provisions cost, at a time when the NHS is stretched delivering its current workload?
• What is to prevent the streamlining or loosening of processes, as in so many other countries, once the “in principle” decision is made?

Once the door is open, it is difficult to close, and there will be unintended consequences … with unalterable results for those who die.

Please stand up for giving the terminally ill a better choice, and better care.

I will await with interest to learn the way you vote.

Best wishes,

+Gregory