It appears, then, that it is a question of when, not if, there will be a change in the law. And yet we must heed John Stuart Mill\u2019s call to be wary about the tyranny of the majority. For, as the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, argues in today\u2019s Observer, such a change would mark the crossing of a legal and ethical Rubicon. \u201cWe are asked to sanction doctors participating in individuals taking steps to end their lives,\u201d\u009d Welby writes. \u201cThis is a change of monumental proportions both in the law and in the role of doctors.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Welby observes that any \u201cchange in the law would place very many thousands of vulnerable people at risk\u201d\u009d. Fearing that they were a burden, some would choose to end their lives, he says. The risk, ultimately, he warns is that we end up in a society \u201cwhere each life is no longer seen as worth protecting, worth honouring, worth fighting for\u201d\u009d. For Welby, \u201cthe current law is not \u201d\u02dcbroken\u2019. There is no need to fix it.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
Society seems to disagree, as does one of his predecessors, Lord Carey. So, too, do the majority of Christians, according to at least one poll. But this is not to say that polls should determine policy nor that the church\u2019s entrenched opposition to reform be ignored.<\/p>\n