by Francis Martin, Church Times
‘This Bill is wrong because it ruptures relationships,’ Archbishop of York says
A FORMER and current Archbishop presented opposing views on assisted dying on Friday, on the second of two days of debate on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in the House of Lords.
“We belong with and for each other. This Bill is wrong because it ruptures relationships, serving one need but creating many others,” the Archbishop of York told peers, warning that passing the Bill would “unleash into our society a fundamental change in our relationships: the relationship between death and life, doctor and patient, parent and child, citizen and state”.
But a former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, said that the Church risked harming its legitimacy by standing in the way of the Bill, which has already passed, albeit narrowly, in the House of Commons (News, 20 June).
It has been agreed that the Bill will now be scrutinised by a select committee, in a step welcomed by Archbishop Cottrell. But he said that, if it returned for a Third Reading, the bishops would be willing to table an amendment to force a vote on the issue.