Assisted suicide bill a ‘watershed’ in the devaluing of life, English archbishop says

Rome Newsroom, Jun 26, 2025 / 10:30 am (CNA).

Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool, who oversees life issues for the bishops of England and Wales, has called the recent passage of a bill to legalize assisted suicide a turning point in the country’s devaluation of the dignity of life.

“I think we’ve crossed a watershed, that fundamental line in the sand that a life is always to be protected and that one cannot assist another person’s suicide… there’s an erosion of the value of the dignity of life,” the archbishop told EWTN News in an interview via video call from Liverpool this week.

Sherrington added that the bishops are concerned particularly for those who are already very vulnerable, such as the disabled, who may now find themselves in an even more vulnerable situation.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which would allow terminally ill adults to end their own lives with the help of a physician, passed the House of Commons by a narrow margin — 315 to 291 — on June 20.

The bill will now go to the House of Lords, where the nonelected upper chamber can choose to pass the legislation or amend it. Predictions appear divided over whether the Lords will pass the bill as is or attempt to amend, delay, or even scuttle it.

Sherrington noted the bill’s passage by “a very narrow vote” and said he thinks it is a reflection of “the division in the country and the concern of many professional bodies, as well as pro-life groups and GPs [general practitioners], that this law is unsatisfactory and is going to put those who are vulnerable in a worse position.”

The archbishop also said the End of Life Bill is a threat to health care workers’ freedom of conscience if it becomes law without the proper protections.

“We are told that there will be freedom of conscience for doctors, but my concern is also all the health care workers, all the social workers who are involved in the care of people who are terminally ill,” he said.

Because of their position in the health care system, nondoctor medical workers “may not have the same freedom” to say “no” to participating in assisted suicide, he added.

According to the BBC, the passage of the End of Life Bill marks “a colossal social change” in the country, made possible by the arrival of hundreds of new Labor members of Parliament and by significant public support for the law.

A YouGov poll last week suggested that more than 7 out of 10 Britons supported the assisted suicide proposals — referred to by supporters as assisted dying — even though the House of Commons had rejected changing the law as recently as 2015.

Both Sherrington and Cardinal Vincent Nichols, archbishop of Westminster, also drew attention to the risk that an assisted suicide law would force Catholic hospices and care homes to shutter.

In addition to writing their members of Parliament expressing opposition to legalizing assisted suicide, Sherrington said Catholics need to help people “understand in their heart and their mind the dignity of the end of life” and the assistance palliative care can provide to ease pain.

“Suffering is part of life, but we can reduce it in various ways,” he said. But often, he said, what helps the most is solidarity and care, and — for those who are Catholic — the sacraments, prayer, and liturgy.

Those things “actually are a source of great consolation,” Sherrington said. “We need to witness to how we best care for people who are suffering, who are in pain, and we have excellent examples of that through the hospices.”

As currently written, the proposed assisted suicide legislation would require patients to be over the age of 18, have received a terminal illness diagnosis with no more than six months to live, and to self-administer the lethal drug.

The decision would need to be approved by two doctors and a panel made up of a social worker, a senior legal figure such as a former judge, and a psychiatrist.

While likely to take longer to roll out than originally predicted, the BBC reported that the government’s impact assessment suggests hundreds will seek assisted suicide in the first years, but after a decade, the rate could rise to an estimated 4,000 people a year seeking assisted suicide.