A retired Church of Scotland minister is calling for assisted suicide to be legalised so that patients could end their lives “in an ethical and merciful manner”.
Contradicting the Church’s official stance on the issue, the Rev Dr John Cameron praised the work of Dignitas, the Swiss-based assisted suicide group, and accused Britain of “exporting” its ethical dilemma overseas.
Writing in the Kirk’s official journal, he said Dignitas provided a much needed service for individuals who want to “die as they have lived”. He also said NHS claims that palliative care was available for all in Britain’s hospitals were an “outrageous untruth”.
The Church of Scotland, however, opposes Independent MSP Margo MacDonald’s controversial End of Life Choices Bill that seeks to legalise assisted suicide in Scotland.
One of the things that I have noticed since returning to Britain two years ago is that there is a ‘softness’ in most of the churches over sanctity of life issues, thus a comment like this does not come as a huge surprise. There are certainly extraordinary complexities when it comes to the end of life component of this conundrum, especially as there is a steady barrage of attempts to change the law in a liberalized direction both in Scotland and the wider United Kingdom. However, there seems to be an unwillingness or inability to wrestle with the philosophical, religious, ethical, and medical concerns that such an approach throws up.
What would Charles Gore have made of it all? It’s not sort of “in the world” conundrum with which his generation had to wrestle but one can’t help but feel that he would have been forthright.
It’s one of the great redeeming qualities of the present incumbent of the See of Canterbury that he hasn’t shrunk from articulating a response; sadly, it often gets buried in the midst of the present disorder.
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