Assisted Dying
When it comes to taking life — even with consent — we face one of the most profound moral tests of our generation.
This issue explores the UK’s legal shift, international trends, biblical wisdom, and what a faithful and compassionate response looks like in an age of growing despair.
Assisted Dying Bill Passed (June 2025)
In June 2025, after extensive debate, the UK Parliament passed the Assisted Dying Bill, making it legal for terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to seek physician-assisted suicide under strict criteria.
Key provisions include:
Applicant must be terminally ill, mentally competent, and expected to die within 6 months.
Two independent doctors and a High Court judge must approve each case.
A 14-day reflection period is mandatory before medication is administered.
Physicians may conscientiously object, but must refer the patient onward.
This marks the first time since the Suicide Act 1961 that the UK has legalised the act of intentionally ending a life, with implications for medical ethics, palliative care, and spiritual witness.
Public Sentiment & Global Context
A 2025 YouGov poll showed 69% of UK adults support assisted dying under strict conditions, although support falls to 42% when high-quality palliative care is available.
In countries where assisted dying has been legalised (e.g. Canada, Belgium), rates of euthanasia increased 40–60% within five years, including for non-terminal cases (e.g. mental illness, disability).
Concerns persist about coercion, misdiagnosis, and social pressure on vulnerable individuals, particularly the elderly and disabled.
What’s Happening in UK Policy
Why It Matters
Human dignity must never be equated with the right to die.
The legalisation of assisted dying may appear compassionate, but it risks embedding despair into healthcare. When suffering is no longer something to be carried together — but a reason to end life — we begin to redefine mercy as silence, and love as withdrawal.
What begins with terminal illness may slowly shift — as we've seen abroad — to include mental health, chronic pain, or social isolation. The door is now open.
Palliative care must not be treated as an afterthought. Legal change should not excuse a lack of investment in the kind of care that preserves dignity without eliminating life.
This is a question not only of freedom, but of what kind of society we are building? one that walks with people to the end — or one that quietly steps away when they cost too much to love.
Biblical Principles
A. Sanctity of Life
Genesis 1:27 – Every person is made in the image of God. No life is dispensable.
Psalm 139:13–16 – Life is intimately formed and intentionally sustained by God.
B. Suffering with Compassion
2 Corinthians 1:3–4 – God comforts us in affliction so we can comfort others.
Matthew 25:36 – Visiting the sick and walking with the suffering is a gospel duty.
C. True Justice Is Costly Love
Proverbs 3:27 – Do not withhold good when it is within your power to act.
Romans 12:15 – Mourn with those who mourn — don't abandon them.
D. Life Is a Gift, Not a Burden
Deuteronomy 30:19 – “Choose life, so that you and your children may live.”
Mini Reflection
We are now a nation that permits death as a medical option.
Ending life with legal sanction is not compassionate relief — it is a concession to despair. True mercy does not end the story early; it turns the page with presence, patience, and love.
The Gospel never bypasses suffering. Jesus did not skip the cross — He walked through it. And we are called to do the same for others.
The Church must be the last place to abandon the suffering. We must fight for better palliative care, community presence, and end-of-life dignity — not because we are callous, but because we believe life, even when fragile, is sacred.
When care becomes too expensive or time-consuming, society will increasingly offer death as the easier choice. But the way of Christ always chooses presence over permission, dignity over dismissal.
Morally Conservative & Socially Liberal
Moral Core:
We affirm the sanctity of every moment of life, especially at the end. Life is not a problem to solve, but a gift to steward until the last breath.
Social Mandate:
We reject legalised assisted dying, and demand a radical investment in palliative care: hospice expansion, mental health provision, respite support, and family dignity.
Policy Vision:
Increase NHS and hospice funding — ensure 1 specialist palliative care provider per 20 terminal patients.
Guarantee free psychological, emotional, and spiritual care for patients and families.
Provide home-based respite grants for carers.
Establish a national End-of-Life Compassion Commission to ensure ethical oversight.
What You or Your Group Can Do
Individual Action
Write to your MP: express deep concern over the Assisted Dying Act and advocate for alternative support models.
Volunteer or donate to hospices, grief counselling services, or terminal illness charities.
Speak publicly and pastorally — offer testimony, care, and hope.
Churches & Communities
Host end-of-life care seminars, equipping families with practical and spiritual tools.
Launch pastoral care teams trained in hospital visitation, comfort ministry, and grief accompaniment.
Offer church space for palliative respite activities, especially for carers and lonely elderly.
Partner with local GPs and hospices to advocate for life-affirming care pathways.