Despite facing imminent closure, the Anscombe Bioethics Centre has launched a new set of resources on ethical legal matters, such as advance statements, lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) and advance decisions to refuse treatment, in an effort to assist Catholics navigating the current changing political and ethical landscape in Britain.
These new resources are designed to guide users through the ethical and legal dimensions of advance planning of medical treatment, and to make decisions in accordance with Catholic moral teaching about end-of-life care.
The resources are described as "the fruit of real collaborative work, with many experts and stakeholders having been consulted over the last two years", and are released as England and Wales face the looming possibility of the legalisation of assisted suicide as well as abortion up to birth.
“Many Catholics are often unsure about whether withdrawing life-sustaining treatment is equivalent to assisted suicide,” says Dr Michael Wee, the Anscombe Bioethics Centre's associate research fellow, who was also the project lead.
“The Church teaches that it is not equivalent, provided the intention is not to end or shorten life, but to avoid overly burdensome treatment.
“The same applies to advance refusals of treatment, with the caveat that it can be more difficult to predict when it would be appropriate to discontinue treatment in the future. Hence, our resources help users explore the different options available and think through what works best for their situation.
“If assisted suicide is legalised in the UK, it is important that we continue to draw a sharp distinction between assisted suicide and legitimate advance planning of treatment. Many people find it reassuring to make such plans, whether it’s a legally-binding advance refusal of treatment, a general statement of preferences, or giving someone they trust the power to make decisions for them.
“It gives them comfort to know that their values will be respected and that they do not have to accept every single treatment at the end of life, whatever the risks or burdens. This is a good thing, and it should be facilitated, while also ensuring that such decisions respect the intrinsic dignity of life. That means avoiding blanket refusals of treatment, for example, and considering what level of flexibility their situation requires."
Advance statements, lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) and advance decisions to refuse treatment are governed by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in England and Wales. While there is widespread interest in these tools for advance planning, they also represent a complex area of ethics and law which is not always well understood, the Anscombe Bioethics Centre explains.
It adds that to date there have been few practical resources designed from a Catholic point-of-view that engage with this subject. The launch marks the conclusion of the two-year project “Advance Decisions and Ethical Choices”, which was initiated to fill that gap. The project was made possible through generous funding from the Sisters of the Holy Cross Charitable Trust.
The centre's director, Prof. David Albert Jones, states: “These resources are thorough and comprehensive, and they are also accessible to a wide range of people who will need them. I am confident that they will be a lasting contribution to the Church in this area of bioethics.”
The project's resources will remain available at the centre’s website, with a foreword from Bishop Paul Mason, the lead bishop for healthcare in England and Wales.
"The possibility of planning our treatment decisions in advance, especially for a time when we are close to the end of life and unable to make those decisions ourselves due to illness, has long appealed to many," says Bishop Mason. "Doing so can provide much reassurance to those who are anxious about the perils of both over-treatment and under-treatment.
"At the same time, many are also looking for ethical guidance on how to make these decisions, so that they will be in accordance with the values of their faith.
"The law in England and Wales on advance decisions, advance statements and Lasting Powers of Attorney is not always easy to grasp, but these resources help break down the different elements and provide guidance on how to use them in the light of Catholic moral values.
"I highly recommend these resources to patients, their loved ones, chaplains, and all those whose work relates to the Mental Capacity Act 2005."
The key resource of this project, the centre notes, is an "Ethical and Practical Toolkit", a user-friendly document with short explanations of different aspects of the ethics and the law of advance decision-making, and which includes template forms for recording decisions.
Among the templates being offered is an “Advance Statement (General Instructions): In the light of the Catholic faith”, which offers a brief summary of Catholic values relating to withdrawing treatment that a patient can sign. This will "help inform a patient's healthcare team of their values at a glance, should they lose the ability to communicate their values and preferences," the centre says.
The "Toolkit" is accompanied by a Q&A guide and series of explainer videos exploring different aspects of advance planning of medical treatment.
The Anscombe Bioethics Centre is having to close at a critical moment for ethical issues and law in Great Britain.
The surprise decision to close the centre based in Oxford, England, has been made on "financial grounds" by the centre’s corporate trustee, the Catholic Trust for England and Wales.
It means that the Anscombe Bioethics Centre will no longer be able to continue its work campaigning against the assisted suicide Bill that recently passed its Third Reading in the House of Commons, among other issues impacting the country.
The Most Rev. Anthony Fisher O.P., Archbishop of Sydney, Australia, has called the centre "not just the premier Christian bioethics institute in Britain, but one of the finest in the world, Christian or secular”.
The official closure date has been set for 31 July 2025, after which staff at the centre will no longer be available to respond to queries on matters of bioethics; the centre is also no longer seeking donations.
As a result of the advancing legislation in the to legalise assisted suicide in Britain, religious orders may be forced out of care homes.
Archbishop John Sherrington, the head of Life Issues for the Catholic Bishops’Conference of England and Wales, has warned that the proposed Bill legalising assisted suicide in Britain will cause “irreversible harm".
This includes the likelihood that Catholic care homes and hospices providing palliative care, along with the individuals that run them or help out, such as members of religious orders, will be put in untenable positions – and which conflict with their consciences – whereby they would have to permit or tolerate assisted suicide occurring on the same premises.
RELATED: Britain's leading Catholic bioethics centre forced to close
Photo credit: the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales at cbcew.org.uk.
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