Message on the Terminally Ill Assisted Dying Bill returning to the House of Commons

I write with some urgency to all the people of the Diocese, as for the third time in little more than a decade, we face a threat to remove legal protections to permit medically assisted suicide, with all the consequences for some of the most vulnerable. I ask you to write to your Member of Parliament to urge them to oppose a re-introduced Private Members Bill to be brought to the House of Commons on Friday 11^th September.

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 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. The euthanasia lobby will not easily give up its efforts to breach long-established protections in our laws, and we must be as resolute and tireless in our own stand for the value of every human life and the protection of those most vulnerable.

As Christians we oppose medical killing in principle. The sanctity of human life is one of the great gifts which Christianity brought to human civilisation. However, in writing to your Member of Parliament we need to also highlight the dangerous consequences of this deeply flawed Bill becoming law. We need to point out with many others the threat posed to some of the most vulnerable and the need for the adequate provision of palliative care, seen in the wonderful work of our hospices. Let us pray for all our Members of Parliament and that the threat of euthanasia (the medical killing of the sick and the aged) be decisively rejected in the weeks ahead.

+ Mark

Bishop of Shrewsbury