Briefing distributed to Scotland's Catholic parishes and Announced on the website of the Scottish Catholic Bishops, Explains Why Assisted Suicide is Wrong
Catholic Church campaigns against Assisted Suicide Proposal
The Catholic Church in Scotland has restated its opposition to a new attempt to legalise assisted suicide.
Director of the Catholic Parliamentary Office, Anthony Horan said;
“This is the third time in little over a decade that the Scottish Parliament has been asked to legalise assisted suicide. Despite the underlying arguments not having changed we are once again being confronted with the frightening proposal that doctors be legally permitted to help patients kill themselves by providing them with a lethal cocktail of drugs.”
“Over the last eighteen months society has been reoriented to protect the most ill and vulnerable in response to the pandemic. Legalising assisted suicide moves in the opposite direction: putting immeasurable pressure on vulnerable people including those with disabilities to end their lives prematurely, for fear of being a financial, emotional or care burden on others.”
Mr Horan restated the Catholic church position that “Once passed, incremental extensions and the removal of protections and safeguards are inevitable and have happened everywhere legislation has been passed.”
He called on MSP’s to “prevent suicide, not assist it” and urged Catholics to “engage with elected representatives to warn them of the serious dangers of assisted suicide and the deadly and irreparable consequences of its legalisation.”
Source https://scmo.org/news-releases/perma/1632319920/article/catholic-church-campaigns-against-assisted-suicide.html
A briefing distributed to Scotland's Catholic parishes, and announced on the website of the Scottish Catholic bishops, the Scottish Catholic Parliamentary Office explain why assisted suicide is wrong.
ASSISTED SUICIDE
Why is assisted suicide
wrong?
• Assisted suicide is gravely contrary to the
dignity of the human person.
• Assisted suicide undermines efforts to tackle
suicide and sends a message to society that
suicide is an appropriate response to physical
or mental suffering.
• Assisted suicide sends a clear message to
frail, elderly and disabled patients about the
value that society places on them and
undermines efforts to improve palliative care.
• Assisted suicide puts pressure on people to end their lives for fear of
being a financial, emotional or care burden on others.
• Assisted suicide undermines public trust in doctors, damaging the doctor
-patient relationship.
• The slippery slope is real and dangerous. Canada has eroded
safeguards in just five years, from terminal illness to cover chronic
illness and disability. It is impossible for any government to draft assisted
suicide laws which include legal protection from future expansion of
those laws.
• An assisted suicide law is extremely high risk. The consequences of
error are deadly and irreparable.
“As a society we
are clear that
suicide itself is
not something to
be encouraged,
much less
assisted.”
-Lord David Alton
Scottish Catholic Parliamentary Office Briefing
A new Bill to legalise assisted suicide is to be lodged at the
Scottish Parliament
What is assisted suicide?
• Assisted suicide refers to a doctor helping a patient to kill themselves by
providing the patient with a lethal cocktail of drugs.
• Assisting someone to commit suicide is illegal under the common law of
Scotland.
• Decisions relating to stopping medical treatments or increasing pain
relief that may accelerate someone’s death are not the same thing as
assisted suicide.
‘The World Medical Association reiterates its strong commitment
to the principles of medical ethics and that utmost respect has to
be maintained for human life. Therefore, the WMA is firmly
opposed to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.’
-70th World Medical Association General Assembly, Tbilisi,
Georgia, 2019
What’s next?
A Bill to legalise assisted suicide will be published alongside a public
consultation on the terms of the Bill. We will let you know when the
consultation is open for submissions.
The Scottish Parliament will have an opportunity to scrutinise the Bill and
MSPs will vote on whether it should be made law.
What can I do?
Visit the Catholic Parliamentary Office website and keep up-to-date
with all the latest developments. You can sign up to our mailing list using
the function on the homepage. You can also follow us on Twitter and
Facebook.
Sign up at Care Not Killing Scotland and support the campaign to
resist assisted suicide and to call for proper funding of palliative care.
Email your eight MSPs (you have one constituency MSP and seven
regional MSPs) and ask them to vote against the Assisted Suicide Bill
when it is presented to the Parliament. You can obtain contact details
via this Scottish Parliament webpage (enter your postcode in the ’Find
MSPs by postcode’ function).
It would be helpful when you write to your MSPs if you could outline
some of your own concerns about legalising assisted suicide, which may
include some of the concerns we have outlined in this briefing. Please
use your own words as far as possible. And don’t forget to include your
name and postal address as MSPs can only answer concerns raised by
constituents.
Healthcare professional? Sign up at Our Duty of Care and support the
professional campaign to resist assisted suicide.
Please pray that attempts to legalise assisted suicide, with all of its
associated dangers, will be resisted and that society, respectful of the
dignity of life, will commit to improving care for those who find
themselves facing death; to care for them, not to kill them.
“The judgement that an illness is incurable cannot mean that care has
come at an end.”
-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Catechism of the Catholic Church declares that assisted
suicide is “gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person
and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator…[it] must
always be forbidden and excluded.”
-Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2277
Why is assisted suicide
wrong?
• Assisted suicide is gravely contrary to the
dignity of the human person.
• Assisted suicide undermines efforts to tackle
suicide and sends a message to society that
suicide is an appropriate response to physical
or mental suffering.
• Assisted suicide sends a clear message to
frail, elderly and disabled patients about the
value that society places on them and
undermines efforts to improve palliative care.
• Assisted suicide puts pressure on people to end their lives for fear of
being a financial, emotional or care burden on others.
• Assisted suicide undermines public trust in doctors, damaging the doctor
-patient relationship.
• The slippery slope is real and dangerous. Canada has eroded
safeguards in just five years, from terminal illness to cover chronic
illness and disability. It is impossible for any government to draft assisted
suicide laws which include legal protection from future expansion of
those laws.
• An assisted suicide law is extremely high risk. The consequences of
error are deadly and irreparable.
“As a society we
are clear that
suicide itself is
not something to
be encouraged,
much less
assisted.”
-Lord David Alton
Scottish Catholic Parliamentary Office Briefing
A new Bill to legalise assisted suicide is to be lodged at the
Scottish Parliament
What is assisted suicide?
• Assisted suicide refers to a doctor helping a patient to kill themselves by
providing the patient with a lethal cocktail of drugs.
• Assisting someone to commit suicide is illegal under the common law of
Scotland.
• Decisions relating to stopping medical treatments or increasing pain
relief that may accelerate someone’s death are not the same thing as
assisted suicide.
‘The World Medical Association reiterates its strong commitment
to the principles of medical ethics and that utmost respect has to
be maintained for human life. Therefore, the WMA is firmly
opposed to euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide.’
-70th World Medical Association General Assembly, Tbilisi,
Georgia, 2019
What’s next?
A Bill to legalise assisted suicide will be published alongside a public
consultation on the terms of the Bill. We will let you know when the
consultation is open for submissions.
The Scottish Parliament will have an opportunity to scrutinise the Bill and
MSPs will vote on whether it should be made law.
What can I do?
Visit the Catholic Parliamentary Office website and keep up-to-date
with all the latest developments. You can sign up to our mailing list using
the function on the homepage. You can also follow us on Twitter and
Facebook.
Sign up at Care Not Killing Scotland and support the campaign to
resist assisted suicide and to call for proper funding of palliative care.
Email your eight MSPs (you have one constituency MSP and seven
regional MSPs) and ask them to vote against the Assisted Suicide Bill
when it is presented to the Parliament. You can obtain contact details
via this Scottish Parliament webpage (enter your postcode in the ’Find
MSPs by postcode’ function).
It would be helpful when you write to your MSPs if you could outline
some of your own concerns about legalising assisted suicide, which may
include some of the concerns we have outlined in this briefing. Please
use your own words as far as possible. And don’t forget to include your
name and postal address as MSPs can only answer concerns raised by
constituents.
Healthcare professional? Sign up at Our Duty of Care and support the
professional campaign to resist assisted suicide.
Please pray that attempts to legalise assisted suicide, with all of its
associated dangers, will be resisted and that society, respectful of the
dignity of life, will commit to improving care for those who find
themselves facing death; to care for them, not to kill them.
“The judgement that an illness is incurable cannot mean that care has
come at an end.”
-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
The Catechism of the Catholic Church declares that assisted
suicide is “gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person
and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator…[it] must
always be forbidden and excluded.”
-Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2277
Source: Website of the Catholic Bishops of Scotland:
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