George Carey, the former archbishop of Canterbury, has urged Church of England bishops in the House of Lords to back a parliamentary bill on assisted dying, saying that in the past “church leaders have often shamefully resisted change”.
The 26 bishops should “be on the side of those who … want a dignified, compassionate end to their lives”, Lord Carey told the Guardian.
Carey, who retired as leader of the C of E in 2002 and still sits in the Lords, said he would back Kim Leadbeater’s bill to legalise assisted dying “because it is necessary, compassionate and principled”.
He said it was “ironic that I will represent the vast majority of Anglicans who favour change, and the bishops in the House of Lords will not”.
Carey’s position is in stark contrast to that of the current archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who this week described Leadbeater’s bill as dangerous, saying it could put pressure on people to ask for an assisted death.
Stephen Cottrell, the archbishop of York, also said the state “should not legalise assisted suicide”, saying better resourcing of palliative care was the right response to end-of-life suffering.
Alan Smith, the bishop of St Albans and convener of bishops sitting in the Lords, said: “In the past, bishops have consistently opposed legislation to introduce assisted dying/suicide. It is likely that we will do the same in the future.”
According to the Rev Canon Rosie Harper, a former member of the C of E’s ruling body, the General Synod, “there is a real disconnect between the [church] hierarchy and what people in the pews think. And I suspect there’s a disconnect between what the bishops feel they have to say and what many of them actually think.”
Opinion polls have shown support for assisted dying among churchgoers is roughly in line with the 65%-75% of the general population that backs a change in the law. A survey of clergy by the Times last year found that more than a third of C of E priests backed assisted dying, up from 22% in 2014.
Harper said that when she first began speaking in favour of assisted dying 15 years ago, she was inundated with messages from fellow synod members who said they privately agreed but “wouldn’t dare say it”. Now, “more and more people [in the C of E] articulate a different point of view, but it hasn’t changed in terms of the instructions from on high”.
Carey said the opposition of many faith leaders was “largely based on fear: of a slippery slope; or that some relatives will coerce vulnerable people; or the example of other nations where assisted dying for those at the end of life has been widened to include those suffering from other conditions. My response is that we must have a strong law that resists abuse.”
He added: “The sad history of scientific exploration often led by Christian lay men and women is that church leaders have often shamefully resisted change. Let’s not follow that trend.
“Let’s be on the side of those who, at the end of their lives want a dignified, compassionate end to their lives. [Let’s] listen to the experience of those who are dying in terrible pain and have begged for help to ease their passing. Pain medication and palliative care has made great strides but there are intractable cases of suffering at the very end of life where this law change will make a real difference.”
However, Smith said there was a Christian principle at stake. “Traditionally Christians have believed that life is sacred; it is a gift from God and it is sinful to take life. Instead, in the face of death, Christians have consistently argued that the dying and terminally ill should be shown compassion in their vulnerability and be treated with dignity,” he told a meeting of his local synod last weekend.
There were also practical reasons for his opposition, including the “threat to disabled people, many of whom already experience terrible discrimination” and the pressure on elderly people “to think they ought to volunteer for euthanasia to reduce pressure on hospital beds”.
The alternative was “to provide funding and resourcing for palliative care services in this country. We need to ensure that our hospices receive the level of state funding that they are so badly lacking at present.”
The Religious Alliance for Dignity in Dying, in a briefing to MPs, said it supported the legalisation of assisted dying because of religious beliefs, not in spite of them. “There is nothing sacred about suffering, nothing holy about agony … It is not a religious kindness to force [terminally-ill people] to suffer against their will,” it said. The briefing cited an Opinium poll that found that 66% of those who follow a religion supported the legalisation of assisted dying for terminally ill people.
Rabbi Jonathan Romain, the alliance’s chair, said there was not a monolithic religious view on assisted dying. “What changed my mind was firstly going to hospice after hospice and seeing people die in pain despite the best efforts. In whose interest are we keeping someone alive against their will if they’re suffering and if they’re about to die anyway?”
But Ephraim Mirvis, the chief rabbi, said the legalisation of assisted dying had “the potential to fundamentally alter the way we regard life as uniquely precious”.
He told the Guardian: “The quest to bring peace to those who are suffering unimaginable pain is a noble one – undoubtedly rooted in compassion and empathy. But this proposed law will have the unintended consequence of creating at least as much anguish as it alleviates.
“The devastating evidence from other countries is clear: when we numb, or remove altogether, our reverence for the precious gift of life itself, we withdraw from a moral standard, to which we might never return.”
Assisted dying is prohibited in Islam and legalisation may prove problematic for the 10% of NHS medical staff who are Muslims, said Qari Asim, a Leeds imam. “Life is absolutely sacred in Islam and no one has the right to take someone else’s life. Life is a gift from God and he chooses how long each person will live. God is not unaware of the pain that some people may be going through and he will reward them for their pain and suffering, as he sees appropriate, in the next world.”
Asim added: “Reducing suffering with analgesia is, however, acceptable, even if in the process death is hastened.” There was a delicate balance in Islam “between respecting the sanctity of life and allowing for compassionate care in the face of inevitable death”.
Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, an imam from Leicester, said: “We are tested in many different ways. Sickness and severe medical conditions are part of the test. We are all born with a predetermined period of life and it is only for God to end it.
“Everyone will die at a time appointed by God. In light of this, for Muslims, assisted dying would not be permissible, neither for the individual nor for others to facilitate it.”
The Catholic church has urged its followers to lobby their MPs to vote against the proposed law, warning that “the right to die can become a duty to die”.
