Source: Guardian UK

Cardinal Vincent Nichols says proposed bill could change medical duty of care into ‘duty to kill’

The UK’s highest-ranking Catholic bishop has urged churchgoers to lobby their MPs to oppose proposed changes in the law around assisted dying in England and Wales, warning people: “be careful what you wish for”.

In a letter to be read out in the churches of his diocese, Cardinal Vincent Nichols said the proposed changes risk bringing about “a slow change from a duty to care to a duty to kill” for medical professionals.

The Labour MP Kim Leadbeater will formally introduce a private member’s bill on the issue to the House of Commons on Wednesday. MPs will vote on the issue at the bill’s second reading on 29 November.

Nichols’s letter goes on to say that in countries where assisted dying has been legalised, the circumstances in which it is permitted have been “widened and widened”.

He said changing the law could result in those who are near to death feeling under pressure to end their lives to relieve family members of a “perceived burden of care”, to avoid pain or “for the sake of inheritance”.

“The radical change in the law now being proposed risks bringing about for all medical professionals a slow change from a duty to care to a duty to kill,” he added.

The archbishop of Westminster continued: “The suffering of a human being is not meaningless. It does not destroy that dignity. It is an intrinsic part of our human journey.

Read further