Dozens of Catholic hospices and care homes could be forced to close if MPs vote in favour of assisted suicide today, Cardinal Vincent Nichols has said.
The Archbishop of Westminster and president of the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales said it was not possible for Catholic institutions to abide by a legal duty to provide assistance in suicide.
In a joint statement with Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool, the lead bishop for life issues, he said that many Catholic residential homes for the elderly and hospices would have to “withdraw from care” if the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill passes Third Reading on June 20.
“We call attention to the fact that the future of many care homes and hospices will be put in grave doubt if the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill becomes law,” they said in their statement.
“Our Parliament has now rejected amendments that would have allowed such institutions not to be involved in assisted suicide.”
They said that Care Minister Stephen Kinnock, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who introduced the Bill, and other MPs have indicated that “the rights that this Bill will give to individuals to seek assisted suicide, and to employees to participate in an assisted suicide, are likely to trump the mission and values of institutions such as hospices and care homes”.
The archbishops said: “In other words, a right to assisted suicide given to individuals is highly likely to become a duty on care homes and hospices to facilitate it.
“We fear that this Bill will thereby seriously affect the provision of social care and palliative care across the country.
“Institutions whose mission has always been to provide compassionate care in sickness or old age, and to provide such care until the end of life, may have no choice, in the face of these demands, but to withdraw from the provision of such care.
“The widespread support which hospices attract from local communities will also be undermined by these demands which, in many cases, will require these institutions to act contrary to their traditional and principled foundations.
“This tragedy can only be avoided by the defeat of this Bill on Friday.”
In the vast majority of jurisdictions in which assisted suicide has been legalised, care homes and hospices have been required to facilitate the practice.
It is highly likely that this will be the case in England and Wales because an amendment to the Bill, which would have explicitly allowed institutions to not be involved with assisted suicide, was rejected at the Report Stage.
The lack of protection that the Bill offers, and the tenor of debate around the amendment, including points made by the Bill’s sponsors, suggest that there is a high likelihood that Catholic hospices and care homes will be required, by some mechanism, to be involved with assisted suicide if the Bill passes.
The Government will issue regulations to enforce assisted suicide provision in care homes and hospices following the principles of equality of access to a “service”, which is invariably given priority over institutional freedom.
The provision of assisted suicide could be tied to government funding of hospices, to the local authority funding of care home residents or to local health authority contracts.
In its evidence to the Bill Committee, <a href="https://u7061146.ct.sendgrid.net/ls/click?upn=u001.gqh-2BaxUzlo7XKIuSly0rC6rTYeOd2qE4TMY-2FvKmabOVE-2BtvbFwmsevKo5UrIouFNVKMwUqwPsd7Z-2BbaXjcMQLkUElFbCKN7XNCNuq2o8NBDaB0JpWxWZsJ5agTlOPA-2FNc6yjxadtjFekbJVpQNcDRg-3D-3Dnufe_z7txIHmiMxMYlag5G1si6lL6Em1HU3JlKfwTUzjubGGmq1UDJVifvmAwDnCQjqmWP-2Bn1rq-2F5xIwXhiXGzLWF-2BSRWFgbc2Jxh0xwLtYElZHY7aA8wpkBEBK1cepYoeFQYXZY48RzwbZPnYnNeWj5JY5peDvP76DGOCumRlqreeT4V5cGq3UCP2oB-2FD2gXXdvWLrm9RTXorDVY-2FpliX-2BYFBZ-2Bii-2BBCXRo9UCzLMou4ck65osQIw4FyVzF7igoQbBWwk3BteGSxA0GG66zH8TmNkj8K1ztxTx2tEYfrqK3BvBNBTOS-2BzCJ2jm-2BZyTusE5DAHz9XV-2F6qBkahJJuvwK87THpO805ucC3DJsRuutZX5lc-3D"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">St Gemma’s hospice in Leeds</mark></a> stated: “If compliance with assisted dying provision becomes a condition for NHS funding, institutions like St Gemma’s may have no alternative but to cease operations entirely”.
When St Joseph’s Hospice in Hackney, East London, published its position in October 2024, it stated: “As a Catholic hospice, our position is that assisted dying plays no part in our specialist palliative care practice and is not consistent with our ethos or values.
“We neither hasten death nor postpone it. We cherish life, but also embrace a natural death when it comes.”
Employers will not be able to take action against employees who choose to facilitate assisted suicide.
In opposing the amendment that would have allowed care homes and hospices to not participate, one MP said quite clearly that it was wrong to allow care homes or hospices to prevent an employee exercising their conscience right to help a client of such an institution commit suicide.
The sponsors of the Bill have made clear that they believe that the “rights” of employees and residents of institutions must be put ahead of the freedom of an institution, putting Catholic hospices and care homes in an impossible position if staff, especially senior staff, take it upon themselves to make arrangements for a resident who wishes to have an assisted suicide or, in the case of a doctor, to provide direct assistance.
Lawyers have also advised the Church that legal challenges may establish that somebody who is seriously ill and who cannot be comfortably moved will have their human rights undermined or be subject to detriment under the Equality Act if the institution in which they are being cared for does not help provide assisted suicide on the premises.
The Government has indicated that a human rights challenge to a care home that did not facilitate assisted suicide would be likely to succeed.
A consequence of the closure of Catholic hospices would be the diminution of high-quality end-of-life care at a time when it is already drastically underfunded.
Catholic leaders have urgently asked the faithful to <a href="https://righttolife.org.uk/asvote"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">contact their MPs to demand that they vote against the Bill.</mark></a>
<em>(Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)</em>
