General Synod has called on the Government to improve funding for “desperately needed” palliative care rather than putting vulnerable people at risk through “unworkable and unsafe” legislation to introduce assisted suicide.
Members of the Synod backed a call by the Bishop of London for the Government to increase funding for palliative care and palliative care research to enable people to live their lives in full until they die.
The debate heard speeches opposing a change in the law and backing increased funding for palliative care from a range of different Synod members including clergy who work in hospice care, NHS consultant surgeons, GPs and a psychiatrist.
Bishop Sarah Mullally, who is a former Chief Nursing Officer for England, said she “deeply concerned” by the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which would legalise assisted suicide, being brought by Kim Leadbeater Bill MP.
And she called on General Synod members to pray and to “engage” with peers in the House of Lords as the Bill goes to the House of Lords.
She told the Synod the Bill was “unsafe and unworkable” and would put vulnerable groups at risk, including terminally ill people who cannot access the end-of-life care they need.
“Successive governments have failed to reduce inequalities in health,” she said.
“These inequalities mean that some people will have up to 20 fewer good years in health than others and certain groups face persistently worse health outcomes than others.