Terminally Ill Bill - Summary of MCU Submission [Full submission]
Summary of evidence submitted by The Revd. Professor Paul Badham at the request of, and on behalf of, the Modern Churchpeople's Union, to the Select Committee on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill.
Terminally Ill Bill
Knowing that the Select Committee is likely to receive submissions from Christian bodies opposed to euthanasia, the MCU is anxious that the Christian case for euthanasia should also be heard. Euthanasia is supported by 66% of members of the Church of England who worship each week. Most people want assisted suicide to be legalised so that they don't have to suffer as they saw the generation above them suffer. 28% believe that it would have been better if their loved one had died sooner than they did. Christian opposition to euthanasia is based on the idea that God alone should determine issues of life and death. Yet all Christians accept the legitimacy of keeping death at bay. Most also accept the legitimacy of family planning and choosing when a baby should be born. The papal encyclical against euthanasia used similar arguments to the encyclical against birth control. Christians who think it right to seek medical help in the timing of birth should think it equally right to seek medical help in the timing of death.Jesus' maxim “always treat others as you would like them to treat you” is relevant to assisted suicide. More doctors commit suicide than any other profession. In at least some cases such suicides are in response to knowledge of terminal illness. Some doctors and nurses have pacts to help each other out if they face suffering in terminal illness. Such doctors should treat their patients as they themselves wish to be treated.
Christians who lived before St. Augustine did not see suicide as intrinsically wrong. Old Testament heroes who committed suicide were praised for doing so. Christians have often seen Jesus as choosing to lay down his life. Death at the end of a long life should be seen as natural, not as something to be feared. If it is moral to pray to God for an easy death, it should be equally moral to ask for a doctor's help for it.
Although good palliative care will encourage many not to ask for assisted suicide it will not cover all cases. “Suffering” goes much wider than pain. Hans Kung believes that it is the weakest and most vulnerable who suffer most under the present system. They would have the most to gain if assisted suicide were legalised. Most of the terminally ill people in the Netherlands who go through the legal procedures necessary for euthanasia do so, because they want the assurance of knowing, that if their suffering becomes intolerable, they will be released from it. But fewer than one in ten of these will ultimately go ahead with euthanasia. The main benefit of the Dutch legislation is that it enables doctors and patients freely to explore all possibilities.
We need assisted suicide to be made legal because the traditional understanding of good medical practice is breaking down. The giving of medication to control pain “foreseeing” but not “intending” the shortening of life is becoming hazardous for the doctor. The legalising of assisted suicide would also enable the revival of the Christian death-bed, with its opportunities for final farewells, and for commending the person to God.