The Catholic primate has written to all MP's in Northern Ireland calling on them to oppose the Assisted Dying Bill which is to be debated in the House of Commons next Friday.
“The life of every human person is equally valuable, whatever the stage or state of that life,” Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin has said.
He has appealed "to all Catholics in Northern Ireland to become actively involved, as baptised Christians and as citizens, in promoting a culture of love, care, respect and protection for every human life. I ask Catholics to encourage their MPs to oppose this Bill," he said.
He continued: "Every human life is worth living and worthy of our utmost care and protection to its natural end. As Pope Francis has said, 'What a lie . . . to make people think that lives affected by grave illness are not worth living!' "
The prelate said that in asking Catholics and others to oppose the Bill, he “is asking them to state that the future of humanity does not lie in a culture of death and the deliberate destruction of another, but in a culture of life and care for one another in which medicine and science are at the service of human dignity, not threats to our very existence.”
Profound
Archbishop Martin said the human, moral, social and medical implications of the “so-called Assisted Dying Bill are far-reaching and profound. I appeal to Catholics and all who believe in the inherent dignity and value of every human life, in all its stages, to inform themselves about the important values at stake in this debate, to pray for the progress of a culture of life and mutual care in our society and to contact their member of parliament to ask them to oppose the passage of this Bill in favour of a more humane and ethically sound future for humanity.”
He said that as Catholics across the island of Ireland prepare to celebrate the annual Day for Life (October 4th) on the theme of Cherishing Life-Accepting Death, he had written to Northern Ireland’s members of parliament asking them to oppose the “destructive and pessimistic approach” to human life proposed in the Assisted Dying Bill to be debated at Westminster on September 11th.
