The church’s Convener of the Council for Public Affairs, Rev Daniel Kane, was speaking after a report prepared for the Irish government recommended the introduction of legislation allowing for assisted dying in certain restricted circumstances.
The Special Oireachtas Joint Committee on Assisted Dying was set up last year to consider and make recommendations for legislative and policy changes relating to a legal right to assist a person to end their life and a legal right to receive such assistance.
It recommends that assisted dying should be allowed in restricted circumstances, limiting it to those with six months to live, or 12 months in the case of a person with a neurodegenerative disease, illness or condition.
The committee also recommended that the right to conscientious objection of all doctors and health workers directly involved in the provision of assisted dying should be protected in law.
It also stated that any potential legislation on assisted dying uses clear and unambiguous terms and definitions, to avoid scope for uncertainty, and that any person inquiring about assisted dying, following a terminal diagnosis, should be informed of accessing all end-of-life care options.
The report also states that palliative care and the operation of assisted dying should operate completely separately and independently of each other and that resources and funding for palliative care services should be substantially increased.
It recommended that anyone who coerces a person into assisted dying will be guilty of a criminal offence under the legislation.
Rev Kane said changing the law “to permit assisted suicide and euthanasia raises the most fundamental of questions about the value that we place as a society on human life”.
“For people of faith, and indeed no faith, human life, its preservation, its dignity, and its protection, are moral and precious values, which society casts off at its peril.”
Mr Kane added: “While we need to process the detail of both the report and the minority report, the fact that two reports were published is a clear demonstration of the deep divisions that exist over this fundamental and sensitive issue.
“The mainstreaming, investing in and strengthening of palliative care services to support those who are nearing the end of their lives must be the focus and priority. The current direction of travel, that will impact on some of the most vulnerable people in our society is not, in any way, the hallmark of a mature, caring and compassionate society,” he said.