25 April 2024
By Peter Kearney
In a pastoral letter addressed to Catholics, the bishops of Scotland will ask them at all Masses on 27 and 28 April to urge their MSPs to reject assisted suicide proposals which have come before the Scottish Parliament.
The letter will be read out in St Patrick’s, St Michael’s and St Peter’s parishes in Dumbarton and all Catholic parishes in the Deanery which includes St Joseph’s in Helensburgh and St Kessog’s in Balloch, and are part of the Archdiocese of Glasgow, headed by Archbishop William Nolan, right.The bishops describe the proposal put forward by Liam McArthur, an Orkney MSP, as “dangerous” and call on all MSPs to focus their energies on improving palliative care which the bishops say is “underfunded and limited”.
The letter states, that a law which “allows us to kill our brothers and sisters, takes us down a dangerous spiral that always puts at risk the most vulnerable members of our society, including the elderly, and disabled, and those who struggle with mental health”.
The pastoral letter cites evidence from other jurisdictions where assisted suicide is legal, including Oregon, where consistently around half of people who choose assisted suicide do so because they feel they are a burden on their families or on their communities and healthcare system.
“When vulnerable people, including the elderly and disabled, express concerns about being a burden”, say the bishops, “the appropriate response is not to suggest that they have a duty to die; rather, it is to commit to meeting their needs and providing the care and compassion they need to help them live”.
The bishops point out: “When our society is already marked by so many inequalities, we do not need assisted suicide to put intolerable pressure on our most disadvantaged who do not have a voice in this debate.”