Lawmakers in Scotland are currently considering a bill that would legalize physician-assisted death — and the nation’s Catholic bishops have spoken out against it.
The Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults Bill was introduced by Liam McArthur MSP in March. The bill would allow terminally ill individuals over the age of 16 to request assisted suicide drugs from a provider. The proposed law would require eligible people to have lived in Scotland for at least a year, and they would need sign-off from two physicians before receiving the lethal drugs.
McArthur has previously portrayed the legislation as compassionate, claiming, “Our current laws on assisted dying are failing too many terminally ill Scots at the end of life. Too often, and despite the best efforts of palliative care, dying people are facing traumatic deaths that harm both them and those they leave behind.”
The nation’s 10 Catholic bishops joined together to submit a statement to Parliament opposing the bill and its misguided intentions. They specifically warned that the bill is dangerous to the ill, disabled, and vulnerable, noting that “assisted suicide attacks human dignity and results in human life being increasingly valued on the basis of its efficiency and utility.”
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“The proposal, to be blunt, provides a quick, cheap alternative to good palliative care,” the bishops wrote. “This is supported by claims in Mr. McArthur’s proposal for a bill, which chillingly conceded that it is cheaper to end life than to provide care. The focus must be on providing care, not providing a cheap death.”
They also dismissed the idea that the bill has adequate “safeguards” in place, pointing to places like Canada and the Netherlands, where such safeguards have been repeatedly repealed.
“No matter how well-intentioned the safeguards are, it is impossible for any government to draft assisted-suicide laws which include legal protection from future expansion of those laws,” they said. “Once a law permitting assisted suicide and/or euthanasia is established, so-called safeguards will be eroded and eligibility criteria expanded to create a system of death on demand and death by prescription, facilitated by the state.”
They called on lawmakers to do more to offer aid and assistance, rather than the option of death, to those who are struggling.
“The poor and vulnerable are already struggling to live. Parliamentarians in Scotland ought to offer them care and support to live, not a concoction of drugs to die,” they wrote. “Killing is not the solution to ill-health, poverty or any other social challenges. The state ought to support the provision of care, not deliberate killing, for those at the end of life.”
