This month, there has been yet another push for the legalisation of assisted suicide across Europe. It has been met with firm opposition from the Church, which opposes the practice entirely. Gradually, though, assisted suicide is being normalised and legalised as a part of medical provision in society. And we have seen that once it starts, it has little appetite to stop.

In the British Isles it appears that Jersey will be the first constituent part to legalise the practice. Having been granted Royal Assent, it is expected that assisted suicide will begin to be provided on the island late next year.

In a statement, the Government of Jersey called the granting of Royal Assent for the Assisted Dying (Jersey) Law 2026 a “critical step in ensuring that the assisted dying service can now begin operating on schedule”. The Minister for Health and Social Services, Senator Tom Binet, said he was “delighted”.

It will likely not be long before the Isle of Man follows suit. In March 2025, the Isle of Man Assisted Dying Bill 2023 was passed, awaiting Royal Assent. The passing of the Bill made it the first part of the British Isles to do so.

Across the water in Westminster, efforts to legalise euthanasia are also underway. The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, introduced by the MP for Rochester and Strood Lauren Edwards, will have its second reading and vote on September 11, 2026. A near-identical Bill had been defeated in the House of Lords in April, but under the Parliament Act its passing in the lower house could see it bypass the upper. Edwards previously has said that she was asking the House of Lords “to finish the job”.

In response, the bishops of England and Wales have been vocal in calling upon Catholics to write to their MPs and ask they vote against the Bill.

Archbishop Moth, president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, called the Bill “wrong in principle” and said that, if passed, it could lead to vulnerable people feeling pressured into ending their lives.

He said: “The Bill has a serious lack of protection for health and social care staff and risks putting many wonderful hospices and care homes in the position of no longer being able to operate.”

Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury said: “In 2015 a Bill to permit medically assisted suicide was overwhelmingly rejected by the House of Commons. In 2024, a Bill with the same object of removing legal protections from the sick and the aged, passed by a small margin in the House of Commons and in June 2025, the same Bill completed its passage with an even narrower majority.

“This Bill did not survive scrutiny in the House of the Lords due to the dangers it posed and fell in the face of some 1,200 amendments and numerous concerns raised by medical and professional bodies, those representing the disabled, and organisations concerned with mental health and domestic abuse. I think you will be incredulous that this Bill is now back in virtually unamended form.”

In response, he called on Catholics to be “resolute” and “tireless” in defending the dignity of human life. But relentless push on the other side to legalise euthanasia has become apparent, and it is reaching across the Western world – using political loopholes to force legislation through if it has to.

On July 15, France’s National Assembly approved a law allowing terminally ill adults to request euthanasia. It had been passed by the National Assembly three times but was repeatedly rejected by the Senate. It took Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu invoking Article 45 to allow him to bypass the Senate and hold a fourth, successful vote in the National Assembly.

The French bishops warned that the poorest in society “may be the first to pay the price” and that society’s “relationship to vulnerability, old age, disability or illness will change”.

The rhetoric around caring for those in need has already changed. Last year, supporters of the law in France argued that the introduction of euthanasia could save the country an estimated €1.4 billion per year.

On July 24, Australia’s governing Labor Party voted to support the removal of federal legal barriers preventing euthanasia consultations from taking place by telephone or video call. Furthermore, it changed its constitution to allow MPs a conscience vote on future voluntary assisted dying legislation.

Victoria became the first Australian state to legalise euthanasia in 2017, with Western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia later following suit. The Northern Territory is expected to vote on legalising euthanasia next month.

New Zealand’s End of Life Choice Act passed in 2020 following a referendum. It was introduced a year later. It allows for adult residents suffering from a terminal illness, who are expected to die within six months and are in irreversible decline, to request assisted suicide.

Since then, cases of euthanasia have risen sharply. Between April 2025 and March 2026, they rose 48.17 per cent compared to the same period in 2022 and 2023. Seven per cent of applicants reported having a disability, and one in five applicants were not receiving palliative care at the time of application. Since its introduction, 1,696 people have chosen to end their lives through assisted suicide.

The pattern of assisted suicide tends to see its introduction in a limited form, primarily in cases of terminally ill adults, such as we are now seeing in Britain and France. Inevitably, once it is available, borderline cases generate calls for expansion. In continental Europe, we have already seen the process take on extreme forms.

The Netherlands introduced euthanasia for people suffering from a terminal illness in 2002, with those suffering in a way considered unbearable and that could not be alleviated – including those with mental illnesses – also qualified to seek it. Two years later, it was expanded to allow euthanasia for infants with severe disabilities up to the age of one.

The Dutch government now allows children to request euthanasia from the age of 12 if they are “capable of assessing and understanding what is best for them in their situation”. From the ages of 12 to 15, parental consent is required; from the ages of 16 to 17, the parent or guardian need only be consulted.

As the French bishops noted, the entire understanding of what constitutes medical care changes, as does the value of human life. Where suicide is seen as another means of treatment, we see cases such as in Canada, where soldiers suffering from PTSD were offered assisted suicide as an apparent remedy. It caused backlash in the press – but in the few years between then and now we have already seen human life reduced to financial questions.

At every stage of this process, the Church has recognised the necessity to oppose assisted suicide. It does so because it teaches that ending one’s life is never the answer, and because it knows that once a society integrates it into medicine, no one is safe. Not the elderly, not the impoverished, not veterans and not even children.