Scotland bishops say assisted suicide bill violates religious freedom

LEICESTER, United Kingdom – As Scotland nears a final vote by the Scottish Government’s Assisted Dying for Terminal Ill Adults Bill, the country’s bishops are expressing “deep concern” about the proposal.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the bishops noted the Scottish Government’s response an amendment which sought to introduce provisions allowing organizations – including hospices, care homes, and faith-based institutions – to exercise conscientious objection.

The Scottish Government stated that “it is not clear how an institution might demonstrate what their ‘conscience’ position is.”

The Bishops’ Conference said it strongly disagrees with the Government’s position, noting that every organization has guiding values that shape its mission and practice.

“For many faith‑based organizations, including Catholic hospices and care homes, these values are fundamentally incompatible with the introduction of assisted suicide,” said Bishop John Keenan of Paisley, the President of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland.

“The Bishops’ Conference maintains that no organization should be compelled by the State to participate in the deliberate ending of life when doing so would violate its ethical or religious principles,” the bishop said.

Anthony Horan, the Director of the Scottish Catholic Parliamentary Office, said the Scottish Government and Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) must accept that Catholic hospices and care homes cannot, in good conscience, provide any services under the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill, nor can they be expected to refer anyone to such services.

“Assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the Gospel,” he told Crux Now.

“If the Bill is not amended to reflect this reality, Catholic institutions may be forced to close to the severe detriment to the communities they have so committedly and compassionately served, many of them for hundreds of years,” Horan said.

The Scottish Parliament will be holding its final, Stage 3 vote on its Assisted Suicide bill on March 17.

On March 11, MSP Douglas Ross, a member of the Conservative Party, said he wanted to amend the Bill to ensure health professionals discuss palliative care options with the patient.

“Without that guarantee, I fear that this bill risks turning what should be a well-supported, fully informed decision, into a coerced or coerced by circumstance one,” he said.

Meanwhile, former health secretary Michael Matheson told the Scottish parliament that coercion – pressuring people to make them seek medically assisted suicide – would be an “inevitable” consequence of the proposed Bill.

On Tuesday, Right to Life UK said support for the Bill is declining in the Scottish Parliament.

“If just seven of the MSPs who voted for the Bill at Stage 1 switch their stance and vote against the Bill at the final vote at Stage 3 next Tuesday …, it will be defeated,” the pro-life group said in a statement.

Horan told Crux Now it is not yet time to be too optimistic.

“Whilst three MSPs who voted for the Bill at Stage 1 have already withdrawn their support, there is still a lot of work to be done to persuade MSPs that the Bill is not safe and never can be safe,” he said.

“The Bishops’ Conference of Scotland will continue to speak up for the inviolable dignity of every human being and work hard to protect vulnerable Scots by opposing this Bill,” Horan said.

An Assisted Dying Bill is also being debated in the UK Parliament in Westminster, England. Although it has been passed by the House of Commons, it has slowed down in the House of Lords, and there is now a good chance the Bill will not become law. That Bill, if passed, would only affect England and Wales.

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