The Catholic bishop overseeing the island of Jersey has called on clergy and parishioners to “speak out” and mobilise against proposals to legalize assisted suicide there.
Jersey, located in the English Channel near the French coast, is under the purview of the Diocese of Portsmouth.
Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth has spoken out repeatedly in recent years against the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia in the Channel Islands.
“Assisting someone to die prematurely or to commit suicide, even when they earnestly request it, can never ever be a compassionate action. It is a grave sin. We must not yield to the temptation to apply rapid solutions, moved by a false compassion or by criteria of efficiency and cost-effectiveness,” Bishop Egan wrote in a May 22 letter.
