Church leaders have expressed “very critical issues” over proposals to legalize assisted suicide in Scotland.
Rev Andrew Downie, moderator of the United Free Church of Scotland, and Rev Bob Akroyd, moderator of the Free Church of Scotland, are urging MSPs to not help Liam McArthur's invoice to legalize assisted suicide.
In a letter to all 129 MSPs, they mentioned backing the proposed laws would cross a “vibrant pink ethical line” and “imply Scottish society has misplaced religion within the inherent worth of all human life”.
They warned that Scotland risked “turning into an moral wilderness” and mentioned the Scottish Parliament “should at all times preserve that every one lives are equally significant”.
Legalizing assisted suicide would ship a message that some folks “have turn into unworthy of life”, they added.
“We imagine, as said within the e book of Genesis within the Bible, that everybody is created by God in his personal picture – a picture that displays and expresses his equal love for everybody. Because of this, each life has equal worth – a worth that may solely be measured by struggling Jesus Christ on the cross for humanity,” church officers write.
“We additionally imagine that for the survival of a civilized society everybody ought to imagine that everybody else is equally precious. It’s due to this fact essential to know the implications for the Scottish Parliament in the event that they cross a vibrant pink ethical line of recognizing that if life falls wanting a sure high quality then it loses worth and could also be terminated.
“It could turn into a society the place the worth of all human life is in truth unequal and purely relative. It could be a society the place the worth of every human life could possibly be graded in accordance with its usefulness, meaningfulness, and the quantity of enjoyment it might probably have.” Experiences.”
The letter ends with a name for high quality palliative and hospice care to be developed throughout Scotland to make folks “as snug as potential with out intentionally ending their lives”.
“Society will then proceed to acknowledge these sufferers as having full worth and price whereas unconditionally accepting them for who they’re with compassion and care,” they mentioned.
