NO LAW to allow assisted dying can safeguard against the danger that people seek to die because they feel like a burden on their loved ones, the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, has told the parliamentary committee scrutinising the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.
In written evidence submitted to the committee in January, and published by Church House on Friday, Bishop Mullally wrote that the “Church of England’s opposition . . . is rooted in the impact the Bill would have on the most vulnerable members of society”.
In the submission, Bishop Mullally argued that the Bill did not contain safeguards against people seeking to die because they felt that they had become a burden — and that she did not believe that any law allowing assisted dying could achieve this.
The availability of assisted dying would “change societal attitudes to the end of life”, Bishop Mullally argued in the six-page submission. “There is a likelihood that people will be pushed to consider assisted suicide by a mix of care needs and financial pressures,” she wrote.
In relation to the importance of palliative care, Bishop Mullaly, referring to her nursing experience, said that she was confident that “in the overwhelming majority of cases we were able to provide our patients with a good death”.
Painful deaths had decreased “markedly” because of modern advances in palliative care, and promises of additional funding for this area of medicine were “very welcome”, Bishop Mullally said.
None the less, “long-term funding challenges”, as well as public perception that the NHS was broken, meant that there was a “real risk that those at the end of life will feel like a financial burden to family, friends, and the services that care for them”.
This shouldn’t be the case, Bishop Mullally said: “The irreducible value of every human person means that no one is a burden, every life is precious, every life is worthy of care. No one should feel compelled to hasten their own death.”
Disabled people were particularly at risk of being offered assisted dying, “in a way which either implicitly or explicitly makes them feel like a burden”, she said, and argued that existing health inequalities were likely to be exacerbated by its introduction.
Although Bishop Mullally stated that, in her view, the Bill could not be made acceptable, she suggested three areas in which its impact “might be made less harmful”.
These include removing a clause allowing medical practitioners to raise the possibility of assisted dying, and adding an obligation for the assessing doctor to refer an applicant if there is any doubt as to that person’s capacity to make a decision.
She also called for a widening of the scope for health-care staff to object conscientiously to any involvement in assisted-dying cases.
The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passed to the Committee Stage after a vote in the House of Commons last November (News, 29 November 2024).
C of E bishops have been prominent among those raising concerns about the Bill (News, 2 December 2024).
Bishop Mullally, a former Chief Nursing Officer and the C of E’s lead bishop on healthcare, made the submission on behalf of bishops in the Church of England and the Archbishops’ Council. General Synod resolutions expressing opposition to allowing assisted dying are cited at the beginning.
In 2022, the Synod voted, by a large majority, against a change in the current law that makes euthanasia illegal, although guidance says that breaches should be prosecuted only if this is in the “public interest” (News, 11 July 2022).
This is reflected in Bishop Mullally’s submission to the committee, which concludes that the “safeguard which best protects the irreducible value of all people is undoubtedly the current law”.
Concerns about the management of the Committee Stage, including the selection of members and witnesses, have previously been raised by commentators (Comment, 31 January).
Evidence continues to be considered. The Bill is next due to be debated in the House of Commons on 18 and 19 March
