The Assisted Dying bill is due to be debated on the 29th November. I did eventually get a reply from our MP this week. She indicated that she is mindful to vote against and continue to push for better funding of palliative care.
This reason is actually pretty crucial. There are a number of pragmatic reasons for opposing this bill and euthanasia more generally. There are also big, principled reasons, underpinned by Christian theology and I want to suggest that the palliative care factor arises directly out of that. This is partly because of our belief that all are made in God’s image and so the vulnerable should be treated with dignity even and especially when dying. This as you know is why I see the display of images of aborted foetus as a shock tactic against abortion to be wrong, inconsistent with Christian faith. It is also partly because we think that it is possible to make sense of suffering and to walk through it.
Crucially though, the reason we can walk through suffering and why we want to alleviate it through palliative care rather than ending a life is because we have sure and certain hope in Christ and the resurrection.
Certain Hope is a central theme and the alternatives are fear and ignorance. What do I mean by this? Well first ignorance, I don’t mean this pejoratively but there is a lack of awareness/ knowledge that is crucial to the belief in euthanasia. This makes it all the more alarming when former Evangelical bishops come out in favour of it. You see the assumption had to be that death has the final word, that there is no more after that. Yet we are told not to fear the one who can kill that body but the one who has power beyond the grave, power to throw you into hell. There is life after death and it will not be without suffering for all.
Secondly fear is significant. There is the fear of death itself because it is something beyond our control, something imposed from the outside. This extends to our fear of the dying process, of pain, of loss of dignity, memories, perhaps even identity with some conditions.
Better palliative care is in some ways a partial answer to those fears and I think Christians should support it as a symbol of better hope. How many people actively would prefer assisted suicide to present expectations but not if they had more confidence in end of life care?
We have to go beyond this in our answers though, especially because this is not just about winning votes in Parliament but speaking to a culture which may well have already made its mind up.
This means that we need to tell the stories of better hope including of good deaths and fruitful, faithful walking through suffering. It means most of all that we must persistently point to the only certain hope of The Gospel.
Faithroots 