The Anscombe Bioethics Centre is having to close at a critical moment for ethical issues and UK law.
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, according to a statement from the centre’s director, David Albert Jones.
It means that the <a href="https://www.bioethics.org.uk/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">Anscombe Bioethics Centre</mark></a> 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. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the centre analysed "<a href="https://www.bioethics.org.uk/research/covid-19-briefing-papers/the-ethics-of-pandemic-lockdowns-rev-nicanor-pier-giorgio-austriaco-op/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">The Ethics of Pandemic Lockdowns</mark></a>" and addressed the likes of vaccination mandates.
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 centre’s name honours Elizabeth Anscombe (1919–2001), the great Catholic philosopher who taught in Oxford and Cambridge, debated with C.S. Lewis, and studied with Wittgenstein. She was well-known for her defence of human life and for sparking the contemporary revival of virtue ethics.
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.
“It is the earnest hope of staff at the centre that some means may be found to continue to make available the resources of that the centre has generated, and also to continue the vital work of bioethical research and education that fully respects the dignity of the human person,” says Jones.
He notes that the centre – along with the donations it has received from trusts, organisations, communities and individual donors – has “helped educate and support generations of conscientious healthcare professionals, clerics and lay people” for almost 50 years. The support “has also helped prevent repeated attempts to legalise euthanasia or assisted suicide in Britain and Ireland from 1993 to the present”.
He singles out the support received from the Catholic community in Ireland, “especially during the pandemic when second collections were not possible”.
Jones notes that even when the centre has not managed to prevent “an unethical law” from being passed – for example the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990 or its amendment in 2008 – the centre “has maintained a witness the dignity of human life from conception to natural death”.
He adds: “We have been able to give advice to professionals, carers and patients about how to act ethically despite the establishment of unethical practices within healthcare.”
Much of the focus of the centre's work over the past year has been the attempt in Scotland and in England and Wales to decriminalise "encouraging and assisting suicide" in the case of people deemed to have a "terminal" illness.
“Our work has been cited in Parliament and we have helped inform many people who are concerned about this issue,” Jones notes.
“Assisted suicide Bills continue to make progress both in Scotland and in England and Wales, albeit by narrow majorities.
“While the centre will no longer be in a position to provide new resources, we urge people to make use of the resources we have already made available and to engage with the Scottish Parliament and with the House of Lords as these bodies continue to debate dangerous and ill-thought-out legislation.”
<a href="https://thecatholicherald.com/breaking-news-catholic-hospices-face-closure-after-mps-pass-assisted-suicide-bill/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><strong><em>RELATED: Catholic hospices face closure after MPs pass assisted suicide Bill</em></strong></mark></a>
<em>Photo: iStockImages </em>- studying natural extracts
<em>Those who wish to be kept up to date on bioethical issues can send an e-mail to david.jones@stmarys.ac.uk in order to receive information on matters related to bioethics; they can also access the centre's current resources on the issue of assisted suicide <a href="https://www.bioethics.org.uk/educational-resources/resources-on-eas/"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color"><strong>here</strong></mark></a>. </em>
