by Jonathon Van Maren, The Bridgehead
“In a hundred years, if Christians are identified as people who do not kill their children or the elderly, we will have done well,” theologian Stanley Hauerwas observed in an interview in 2012.
It didn’t take 100 years.
In a letter to politicians ahead of this week’s parliamentary debate on assisted suicide in the United Kingdom, television host and euthanasia activist Dame Esther Rantzen, who is suffering from terminal lung cancer, expressed her frustration that her family could allegedly face prosecution for accompanying her to Dignitas, the Swiss suicide service located in Zurich.
Rantzen urged MPs, several of whom have announced publicly that they are rescinding their previous support for MP Kim Leadbeater’s Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, to vote for it—and stated that a primary barrier to its passage is parliamentarians with “undeclared religious beliefs” who were not being forthright about their motivations and were merely hiding their faith-based opposition behind other concerns.
“There are some who oppose this crucial reform,” Rantzen wrote. “Many of them have undeclared personal religious beliefs which mean no precautions would satisfy them.”
MPs were livid at Rantzen’s missive. Labour MP Jess Asato stated that “Many colleagues found this distasteful and disrespectful.” MP Florence Eshalomi concurred: “As politicians we have to be clear that members with valid concerns about this bill are not raising it because of some ideology or religious belief. It is because we recognize that if this bill passes it may impact everyone.”