UK bishops’ conference president speaks out against ‘deeply flawed’ assisted suicide bill

Cardinal Vincent Nichols of the Archdiocese of Westminster. / Credit: Daniel Ibáñez/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 2, 2025 / 14:02 pm (CNA).

The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales is urging U.K. Catholics to contact their members of Parliament (MPs) and express their opposition to an assisted suicide bill making its way through the legislative process. 

“Every MP, and government, has a solemn duty to prevent such legislation reaching the statute book,” Cardinal Vincent Nichols wrote in an April 1 pastoral letter. “So I appeal to you: Even if you have written before, please make contact now with your MP and ask them to vote against this bill not only on grounds of principle but because of the failure of Parliament to approach this issue in an adequate and responsible manner.”

Members of Parliament voted in favor of advancing the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill on Nov. 29, 2024, in a 330-275 vote after the bill’s five-hour second reading debate in the House of Commons. The last time members voted on the issue, in 2015, the bill was voted down at the second reading and progressed no further. 

The bill is set to have its third reading on April 25. 

“This will be a crucial moment and I, together with all the bishops of England and Wales, am writing to ask your support in urging your MP to vote against the bill at that time,” Nichols said.

The bishop stressed that MPs have not taken enough time to deliberate over the bill before voting and that the committee charged with its review is overwhelmingly composed of its supporters. The bill’s flawed process, he said, leaves numerous questions unanswered, including whether proper safeguards would be able to ward off human rights violations as well as protect conscientious objectors and the vulnerable from coercion. 

“In short, this is no way to legislate on such an important and morally complex issue,” he stated, adding that he believed it to be a “sad reflection on Parliament’s priorities that the House of Commons spent far more time debating the ban on fox hunting than it is spending debating bringing in assisted suicide.” 

Nichols concluded his letter asserting that instead of pushing for the legalization of assisted suicide, “what is needed is first-class, compassionate palliative care at the end of our lives,” a resource that is currently in “short supply and underfunded.”

“No one should be dispatched as a burden to others,” he wrote. “Instead, a good society would prioritize care for the elderly, the vulnerable, and the weak. The lives of our families are richer for cherishing their presence.”

Recent reports have said the controversial assisted suicide bill’s passage could be delayed another four years amid a growing climate of concern about the viability of the practice.