Anglicans Against Euthanasia

The Joffe Bill will be debated in the Lords on June 6th. We need bishops and peers to speak out forcibily. A Matter Of Life And Death.

Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, says that euthanasia is “an act of violence, an attempt to take possession of the future…even if euthanasia were legalised in some form and pragmatic anxieties overcome, it could not be a course of action endorsed by Christians.” On June 6th the House of Lords will have its first debate on Lord Joffe’s Patient Assisted Dying Bill – that seeks to make euthanasia legal. This “act of violence” will become routine and legal. Care homes and hospices that have traditionally overseen the care of the elderly, the sick or the dying will become charnel houses. In seeking to “take possession of the future” we will demand of our doctors that they become licensed killers. The collateral effects on society’s attitudes are incalculable. At Westminster last week one Peer, Baroness Trumpington, a former Health Minister, said that she had not received a single letter opposing euthanasia but had been inundated with letters supporting it. There is a huge write-in campaign. It is co-ordinated by those lobbying for change. The issue for Christians is not simply about whether euthanasia should be endorsed, it is about whether something so fundamental should occur with barely a murmur of protest. Thirty years ago Christian quietism – and a docile, false belief that abortion would never be legalised – paved the way for a law that has claimed 6 million lives. With what indifference will we now allow the fate of the unborn to be visited on the sick and dying?