Cardinal Vincent Nichols said: “I believe it is deeply irresponsible of any government to allow a change of this magnitude to be carried out without due, proper, government-supported parliamentary process.”
He told the Christian Fellowship group of News UK, the parent company of The Times newspaper that MPs had spent hundreds of hours debating fox hunting in 2004.
The Archbishop of Westminster said that what was happening with the bill, “if it came to pass, would be the biggest change that this country has seen for many, many decades at least, probably more. On the back of what — five, six, seven hours’ debate? I was told that the fox hunting bill [in 2004] endured 700 hours of debate.”
Nichols said the magnitude of the proposed change was too great to be left to a private member’s bill debated during one morning in parliament last November.
He labelled the debate a “shambles” and expressed hopes that the bill may still be defeated, noting: “I don’t think that story’s over yet.”
The debate on 29 November 2024 on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) bill, brought by Kim Leadbeater, the Labour MP, lasted five hours and was passed by a majority of 330 MPs. Two hundred and seventy five opposed the measure.
The Hunting Act 2004 passed after a government inquiry and 700 hours of parliamentary debate.
Nichols’s comments on assisted dying came in answer to a question from The Times on whether the public still respects the moral authority of faith leaders when they speak out on public issues such as assisted dying.
Earlier this week, distinguished psychiatrists expressed “alarm” over the speed at which the legislation was moving through parliament, saying that could “undermine daily efforts to prevent suicide.”
In a letter to The Times, 24 psychiatrists wrote: “We are alarmed at the haste of the committee considering the bill for assisted dying. Three days of oral evidence seems insufficient to consider such a huge question as doctor-assisted suicide.”