Catholics urged to help prevent assisted suicide in Scotland
Catholics are being urged to sign a national petition to stop plans to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland.
Care Not Killing (CNK), supported by the Catholic Parliamentary Office, has launched the petition to show how strong the level of resistance is in Scotland against Liam McArthur MSP's proposed assisted suicide Bill.
The bill risks undermining the provision of palliative care and undermining efforts to prevent suicide.
It will make the most vulnerable people, including the elderly and disabled, feel like a burden and its safeguards will prove futile.
Bishop Hugh Gilbert, President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, said: “As Catholics we must reject assisted suicide and encourage rather the enhanced provision of palliative care for the elderly, the disabled, and the vulnerable who are such a precious part of our society."
Not safe
Anthony Horan, Director of the Catholic Parliamentary Office, said: “There is no such thing as a ‘safe’ law which allows assisted suicide. So-called ‘safeguards’ will be stripped away, and the law expanded to include an increasing number of vulnerable people.
"Evidence from other countries shows us that those who suffer from mental ill health, the disabled, and even children, are not safe. The current law is the safeguard. We should be caring for people, not killing them.”
Parishes are invited to hold a Petition Day on a Sunday during October to promote the petition and gather as many signatures as possible.
- Poster for parishes - click here.
- Petition guidelines - click here.
- Download the petition - click here.
Bishops: Assisted suicide attacks human dignity
Scotland's Catholic bishops have hit out at assisted suicide proposals describing them as an attack on human dignity.
In a submission to the consultation on assisted suicide proposed by Liam McArthur MSP, they said that assisted suicide will undermine efforts to prevent all suicides, damage public trust in doctors and leave frail, elderly and disabled people feeling they are a burden on society.
The church response was submitted to the consultation by Anthony Horan, Director of the Catholic Parliamentary Office.
He said: “Assisted suicide attacks human dignity and is based on the mistaken belief that individuals can lose their value and worth.
"The state should support the provision of care, not the deliberate killing, of those at the end of life.”
Pressure on vulnerable
Mr Horan added: “Assisted suicide undermines efforts to prevent suicide and sends a message that suicide is sometimes appropriate.
"It also sends a clear message to frail, elderly and disabled Scots about the value that society places on them and puts pressure on them to end their lives for fear of being a financial, emotional or care burden on others. This is intolerable and utterly wrong.
“No matter how well intentioned the safeguards are, it is impossible for any government to draft assisted suicide laws which include legal protection from future expansion of those laws.
The slippery slope is real and dangerous. MSPs should be preventing suicide, not assisting it by introducing a dangerous law with deadly and irreparable consequences.”