United Kingdom: assisted suicide law back in Westminster. Mgr. Sherrington, “false mercy”

“Although the pandemic showed us the importance of preserving at all costs the life of the sick and the more vulnerable ones and of those who are on the verge of death through heroic deeds, now we have to reckon with the real risk that assisted suicide may be legalised in our country”. With these words, bishop John Sherrington, director of the life section of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, expresses, in a release, his opposition to the law that will be submitted to the House of Lords later today. It is the first time in over five years that Westminster has had to discuss assisted suicide. The new law that will be submitted to the Upper House of the British Parliament by Baroness Meacher, proposes that people helped to die should be terminally ill people of sound mind, who may chose how and where to die. Their petition should be given the go-ahead by two doctors and a High Court judge. The last attempt at legalising assisted suicide in Great Britain dates back to 2015, when the Marris bill was defeated at the House of Commons, with 330 votes versus 118. “Even if this law is presented as a merciful response to people who are at the end of their lives, it is a false mercy, as Pope Francis reminds us”, bishop Sherrington concludes.
Valentina Bombelli