But that emotion best sums up my reaction when I heard the horrendous news that The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill 2024-25 had passed its second reading in the House of Commons late last month.
In spite of Labour enjoying a massive majority in the Commons, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater’s Bill only passed by 55 votes after a five-hour highly-charged debate with many MPs voting according to conscience rather than a party loyalty.
This Bill would allow terminally ill adults in England and Wales with less than six months to live to end their lives, subject to the approval of two doctors and a High Court judge.
The Bill still has a lot of parliamentary stages to pass through before it becomes law and does not apply to Northern Ireland. So what is all the fuss about, you may ask me, given the supposed safeguards built into this Bill?
Is suggesting this Bill could pave the way for The Second Holocaust not a large bit ‘Over The Top’ with me behaving, not as a compassionate born again Christian, but as a raving ultra Right-wing militant fundamentalist?
The real fear for evangelical Christians like me is that this Bill could become the thin edge of the wedge in future years in terms of who could qualify for the assisted dying programme.
I’m not thinking of myself. But I am the parent of a 29-year-old son with severe non verbal autism. Since he was statemented in the late 1990s, I have witnessed the autistic spectrum widening in scope to take account of folk who would not have been on the spectrum in 1997.
Give us another decade and probably all of us will find ourselves on that spectrum to some degree, even if it is only the so-called ‘Monday Blues’!
My spine-tingling fear and the reason for my weeping is brutally simple - who will protect my son when I’m gone? Indeed, what’s to stop the scope of this assisted dying legislation being extended to the most vulnerable in our society?
It’ll never happen, I hear the supporters of assisted dying yelp; there’ll always be those built-in safeguards. That may be the case now. But after I’m dead myself, if society cannot afford to look after the most vulnerable, what’s to stop the scope of who can be classified as ‘suitable’ for assisted dying being extended to folk from the Special Educational Needs (SEN) community?
It’ll never happen, the supporters of assisted dying continue to moan. But was it not a wee former Austrian corporal who fought for Germany in the Great War who conceived a plan to try and rid Europe of folk with mental and physical disabilities?
That plan was extended to other groups and ended up with six million people dying in Nazi concentration camps between the late 1930s and 1945. So don’t tell me it can never happen given man’s reputation of inhumanity.
My son does not talk; he uses basic sign language to communicate. If such an assisted dying law was to come to Northern Ireland, do I have time to teach him the sign language for - I don’t want to die!
The Christian churches have quite rightly stepped up to the mark and voiced their strong opposition to the Commons Bill. But they must do more than complain.
The churches need to form a united front to campaign for increased funding and facilities for palliative care in Northern Ireland so that an assisted dying law is never needed in this Province.
Palliative care is a recognised and dignified medical way of treating people suffering, for example, with a terminal illness.
Churches also need to defend their theological positions on the power of prayer and the concept of divine healing.
There have been many examples over the decades and generations of people being diagnosed with supposedly terminal illnesses, only to be completely healed through genuine Christian divine healing.
There is the real possibility that any future assisted dying legislation could also mute the Christian Churches’ ability to intervene when a person has been given a terminal prognosis.
The churches cannot afford the luxury of burying their heads in the sand by simply stating this Bill only applies to England and Wales. If it can be conceived in mainland Britain, it can be introduced in Northern Ireland.
The churches need to urgently organise to ensure appropriate funding is ring-fenced for palliative care by the Stormont Executive.
Theologically, the churches also need to educate their flocks and society about divine healing, so that it is not wrongly perceived as some kind of tele-evangelism con trick.
When God decides it is my time to enter eternity, I want to do so with the peace of mind that the goal posts of who qualifies for assisted dying will not be extended so far that vulnerable adults like my son or others in the SEN community will be seen as a ‘soft touch’ to cut the caring budgets.
Put bluntly, The Second Holocaust must never become a reality.
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter John is a Director for Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. |
"A Bill to 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."
ReplyDeleteIs the Bills full ( long) title. The key to this is they must request it. While I'm sympathetic to John's obvious concern it's a long bow to reach the point of eugenics he's concerned about. This is about alleviating pain in those facing certain death nothing more.
Isn't compassion supposed to be a Christian value?
I too can see why John is coming at it from a parent's point of view. It is a welcome contribution to the wider discussion. I am fully in favour of it as I think it is a much more compassionate and humane way of dealing with end of life. Ultimately, people should not be deprived of autonomy over their own bodies. There is a slippery slop dimension to everything but language like Holocaust is OTT. There is a genocide taking place in Gaza at the minute and it seems not to concern many of those worried about the right to voluntary assisted dying.
DeleteI am prepared to listen to any criticism of end of life perspectives other than a religious one. What someone else's religious opinion is does not enter into my considerations when making decisions about anything for my life.
Good piece John.
Good piece John.