In this legal seminar, Roger Kiska, Legal Counsel to the Christian Legal Centre, outlines the significant procedural flaws in Kim Leadbeater’s bill, and how assisting people to die is contrary to the example of Jesus’ life.
On 31 March, we welcomed guests to the first of our legal seminar series where we analyse the Christian Legal Centre’s key battles at this cultural moment, pertaining to life and freedom.
This first seminar was titled “The End of Life Bill: Legal and medical perspectives through a Christian framework”, and analysed the assisted suicide bill passing through Parliament, taking into account several of our high-profile end-of-life cases.
Roger opened his talk by citing historical attempts to legalise assisted suicide in the UK, and shared the legal implications which the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would have.
As the Bill stands after Committee stage, there are numerous major concerns around:
- Insufficient safeguards to protect the vulnerable, disabled and mentally ill
- Shifting oversight from a High Court judge to a Voluntary Assisted Dying Commission
- Fundamentally altering the purpose and function of the National Health Service (NHS)
- Fundamentally altering protections in place within the Suicide Act 1961
- Undermining the ethical integrity of healthcare workers who may conscientiously object
- Possible broad interpretations of vague terms such as “medical practitioner”
The cases of Sudiksha Thirumalesh (19) and Archie Battersbee (12), among several high profile end-of-life cases that the Christian Legal Centre has fought, demonstrate a lack of transparency and accountability in how the courts of law and NHS mishandled critical care. These patients’ lives were prematurely cut short against their families’ and their own wishes.
Unless the culture of death which has permeated our legal and health systems is overtaken by a love and regard for life – and unless this is coupled with resources to practically support the vulnerable – one can only expect even more lives to be shortened unnaturally at the state’s convenience.
Roger also shared data from the Netherlands, Canada and other jurisdictions where assisted suicide has been legalised, proving that euthanasia practices only become more and more permissive once the door is opened to state-sanctioned killing.
He raised the example of Jesus, who commands us, “take up your cross and follow me”. Jesus refused to quicken his death, or to shorten his suffering when offered wine and gall by Roman executioners. As Christians, we are called to offer care, companionship and hope in the face of death and despair.
From the experience of many who have written to us, we see how easy it is for patients to make decisions influenced by temporary despair, without fully understanding the long-term consequences or potential for recovery with the right support. We should be making suicide unthinkable in those situations, not removing the very guardrails that prevent the vulnerable from acting on the notion that their lives don’t matter.
Please consider praying with us at our weekly prayer livestreams that the bill will be defeated. If you are able to, please join us for the rally against assisted suicide happening outside Parliament on 16 May, when the bill’s Report stage begins.