The Irish Catholic Bishops have blasted an assisted suicide bill currently before the Oireachtas and urged members of the Church to lobby politicians to reject it entirely.

In a statement following their Spring Quarterly meeting, the bishops said the bill wrongly proposes the deliberate ending of life as a way of conferring dignity on people with terminal illness. They argue the opposite: “Human dignity belongs to every person by virtue of his or her human nature. Terminal illness does not take away that dignity. Indeed, in our experience, the inherent dignity of the person often shines through under those difficult circumstances. Under existing law and current best practice, people with terminal illness are supported by family members, by doctors and nurses and palliative care teams, in living life to the full until death comes naturally”.

Assisted suicide, however, reflects an unwillingness of society to accompany people with terminal illness and would amount to a failure of compassion.

They also said, once accepted in principle that one person may participate actively in ending the life of another, “there is no longer any logical basis for refusing this same option to any person who feels that life is no longer worth living”.

They also tackled the effect on the art of medicine and those who practice it, saying that doctors and nurses, whose vocation and purpose is to serve life, would be involved in ending life.

“This would represent a radical transformation of the meaning of healthcare.”

They finish by saying the Bill is fundamentally flawed and they “call on Catholics to ask their elected representatives to reject it entirely”.