Resist suicide law changes, archbishop urges faithful
By Simon Caldwell

14 August 2009

A senior archbishop has called on Catholics to do their utmost to try to prevent the laws forbidding assisted suicide from being watered down. Archbishop Peter Smith of Cardiff said sick and disabled people would come under pressure to kill themselves if the law on assisted suicide was relaxed following a landmark House of Lords ruling.

He said he had “serious concerns” about the implications of a demand by five Law Lords for a clarification of the law on assisted suicide. “There is a danger of subtle pressure being felt by those who are vulnerable that they are unwanted or a burden to others – those with disabilities and chronic illness especially,” said Archbishop Smith, the vice-president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales and chairman of the bishops’ Department for Christian Responsibility and Citizenship.

He said it was vital that Catholics made a full contribution to a consultation process planned for the autumn ahead of the publication of clear rules on helping people to travel abroad to kill themselves.

His comments came after Debbie Purdy, 46, a multiple sclerosis sufferer from Bradford, West Yorkshire, persuaded the Law Lords to clarify whether her husband, Omar Puente, would be prosecuted under the 1961 Suicide Act if he accompanied her to the Dignitas death clinic in Switzerland. More than 100 Britons have killed themselves there but no one has been prosecuted for helping them although aiding a suicide is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

The Law Lords decided that the right to respect for private life, enshrined within Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights, also covered a person’s choice to end his or her life. Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, will now have to spell out exactly how the law will be interpreted in future.

The churches are vehemently opposed to the euthanasia and assisted suicide because they represent a direct violation of the divine commandment not to kill, but Archbishop Smith said the ruling raised serious public safety as well as moral issues.

“From a moral perspective all are equal in dignity and the protection of the lives of citizens, especially the most vulnerable, has to remain the foundation of the law,” he said.

“It is important that those of us concerned about where this guidance could lead should contribute fully to the consultation. We need to try in particular to ensure that there is no suggestion that certain classes of people have lives that are less worth living or less deserving of the full protection of the law.”

He added: “In coming years our society will have a growing number of older people dependent on others. These demographic changes raise profound and complex social, economic and moral questions. As a society we urgently need to recover respect for the lives of older people and make the necessary investment in their care, including palliative care at the end of life so that no one feels impelled to seek assistance in suicide through feelings of worthlessness or fears of unbearable suffering.

“It will be important that all those concerned for the common good, including the Catholic community, not only take part in the consultation on the DPP’s guidance, but also work for a change of mind and heart in our society so that our quality of care for those who are disabled, old and vulnerable is greatly improved.”

The ruling by the Law Lords has been hailed as a victory for campaigners seeking to change British laws prohibiting euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Some campaigners have openly supported involuntary euthanasia, with the medical ethicist Baroness Warnock stating publicly last year that she believed people who were mentally incapacitated have a “duty to die”.