The leaders of Catholic churches in Victoria, Australia, are strongly opposing a bill that would further loosen restrictions on euthanasia, and are urging lawmakers, Catholics, and others to do the same.
Victoria, a state located in southeast Australia, passed the Voluntary Assisted Dying Act legalizing euthanasia in 2017. The Bill took effect in 2019. Since that time, Channel 10 in Melbourne reports, 1,600 people have ended their lives via euthanasia.
This year, new provisions are being introduced that would expand euthanasia in Victoria. In a pastoral letter to the Catholics of Victoria, Australian bishops write,
In the next few weeks, the Victorian Parliament will be asked to debate a Bill that would further weaken protections for vulnerable patients and reduce protections for medical practitioners who conscientiously object to euthanasia and assisted suicide.
This joint letter was written by Cardinal Mykola Bychok (Ukrainian Eparchy in Australia, New Zealand and Oceania); Archbishop Peter A Comensoli (Melbourne); Bishops Greg Bennet (Sale); Paul Bird (Diocese of Ballarat); Reverend Dr Brian Boyle (Administrator, Catholic Diocese of Sandhurst); and Most Reverend John Panamthottathil (Syro-Malabar Eparchy, Melbourne).
Cardinal Bychok was born in 1980 and is the Church's youngest cardinal.
“Voluntary” assisted dying laws
The Church leaders explain that while euthanasia was already legal, this Bill would strip away protections for patients:
The Government’s Bill seeks to remove many of the limited protections offered by Victoria’s so-called ‘voluntary assisted dying’ (VAD) laws. The changes would, for the first time, allow medical practitioners to raise euthanasia and assisted suicide with patients who have never asked about it – patients who may be at their most vulnerable.
This Bill will not only affect people who are suffering in Victoria, but also those who give them care. The letter states,
The changes would also force medical practitioners who conscientiously object to euthanasia and assisted suicide to provide patients with information about euthanasia and assisted suicide – as determined by the Government.
The bishops wrote to the Premier about this Bill this past Spring and now are urging everyone to contact their local Members of Parliament and implore them to vote against the Bill.
Perspective on euthanasia
Advocates for euthanasia have long used the phrase “dying with dignity,” projecting euthanasia as a way of extending compassion. Royal Australian College of General Practitioners released a statement on October 14 quoting their Chair, Dr Anita Muñoz: “Every patient, no matter their postcode, deserves to die with dignity and not have to experience unnecessary suffering in their last weeks and months.”
But the Catholic leaders in Australia quote Pope Francis who said, “euthanasia is often presented falsely as a form of compassion. Yet ‘compassion’ … does not involve the intentional ending of a life, but rather the willingness to share the burdens of those facing the end stages of our earthly pilgrimage.”
They go on to say that Catholics have a particular understanding of death that the greater society may not share. As Pope Francis says, we see suffering and death “as part of the mystery of divine providence and, for the Christian tradition, a means towards sanctification.”
The Church is also a vocal advocate of choosing care that is "proportional" to the needs of patients and the outcomes expected.
On a tangible level, this also gives people the opportunity to find peace with God, family, and friends at the end of their lives.
In fact, a study done in Australia found that the final months of life can also be a time of "flourishing."
“[W]e would like to put pressure on an assumption that some might hold, namely, that flourishing is impossible or exceedingly rare in the final chapters of life. When someone knows that they have two, six, or 12 months to live, they often give increased focus to what they deem to be most important,” the authors wrote.
Alternatives
Rather than helping people end their own lives, the Catholic bishops advocate for more palliative care in Victoria, particularly in regions with limited access. This approach, they say, seeks to comfort people, to help them in distress, and to relieve pain when possible, but never forcibly ends someone’s life.
They remind readers that a person’s life does not lose its value because they are suffering. They end by quoting Pope Francis who urged people to support patients at the end of their lives to tell them that “their lives are not a burden, but that they always remain inherently valuable in the eyes of God (cf. Psalm 116:15) and united to us by the bonds of communion."
The Australian Bishops have also published a guide for those who provide pastoral support to Catholics considering euthanasia: To Witness and to Accompany with Christian Hope.
