English Bishops Warn Hospices Will Close if Euthanasia Passes

Why would you need hospices to care for the terminally ill if you can simply murder the elderly and terminally ill when they become a burden?

From Aleteia

By Christine Rousselle

Catholic-run hospices and care homes in England and Wales will close if the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill becomes law, said bishops.

Catholic hospices and care homes in England and Wales will likely be forced to close if a new bill permitting euthanasia becomes law, said a joint statement released Wednesday, June 18, from Cardinal Vincent Nichols, archbishop of Westminster, and Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool.

Cardinal Nichols is the president of the Bishops' Conference of England and Wales; Bishop Sherrington is the conference's lead bishop for life issues.

Should the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill become law, said the statement, "the future of many care homes and hospices will be put in grave doubt."

"Our Parliament has now rejected amendments that would have allowed such institutions not to be involved in assisted suicide. Minister Stephen Kinnock MP, Kim Leadbeater MP, as well as other MPs, indicated that the rights that this Bill will give to individuals to seek assisted suicide, and to employees to participate in an assisted suicide, are likely to trump the mission and values of institutions such as hospices and care homes," said the bishops.

The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill would “allow adults who are terminally ill, subject to safeguards and protections, to request and be provided with assistance to end their own life; and for connected purposes,” says the website for the U.K. Parliament.

“In other words, a right to assisted suicide given to individuals is highly likely to become a duty on care homes and hospices to facilitate it," said the statement from the bishops. "We fear that this Bill will thereby seriously affect the provision of social care and palliative care across the country."

Should the bill become law, it could result in Catholic institutions shuttering rather than provide euthanasia or assisted suicide in violation of their missions. In many countries where assisted suicide has become legal, "care homes and hospices have been required to facilitate it," noted the bishops.

“The widespread support which hospices attract from local communities will also be undermined by these demands which, in many cases, will require these institutions to act contrary to their traditional and principled foundations," said the statement.

Pictured: His Eminence Vincent, Cardinal Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster, President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales