Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth has urged people on the island of Guernsey to resist an attempt to allow assisted suicide. Bishop Egan criticised proposals to decriminalise assisted suicide on the island, which is part of his diocese. In a letter read aloud in Guernsey’s churches on Sunday, Bishop Egan said he wished to appeal to all people of goodwill “to overturn this grim proposal”. “Let there be no death clinics in Guernsey,” Bishop Egan said. “I appeal to Catholics to mobilise. Speak out against this proposal. It is never permissible to do good by an evil means.” The bill, which will be considered by legislators in May, is “fundamentally subversive, horrific and dangerous, however well-intentioned,” he said in his letter. “It would be an intolerable and utterly immoral demand to ask medical staff, doctors and nurses, dedicated to preserving life, to extinguish the life of another human person,” Bishop Egan said. “Assisting someone to die prematurely or assisting someone 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 or drastic solutions,” the bishop said. “Instead, we need to show respect, understanding and tenderness to patients who are seriously ill, so that the sacred value of their life can shine forth with splendour in their suffering,” he said. The bill has the support of Guernsey Chief Minister Gavin St Pier. If the bill passes, it could make Guernsey a “death tourism” destination for Britons, as Switzerland has become.