A bill to legalise ‘assisted dying’ in England “is gravely immoral and a danger to our society”, according to the Catholic bishop of Portsmouth. The bill comes before the House of Commons next week.

A separate statement from the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, said the bill would mean “a key protection of human life falls away”.

Bishop Philip Egan issued a statement saying the option of assisted suicide puts intolerable pressure on the sick and the elderly, tempting them to feel they are a burden – and a financial drain – on their family and others.

“The right to die would inevitably become the duty to die – and in time the right to make another die,” he said.

“Assisted suicide places an unacceptable and immoral demand on medical staff, doctors and nurses. It would make them accessories in killing. It would also undermine the trust we would normally have in them,” he added.

Bishop Egan said legalising assisted suicide is “like a line in the sand,” and will end up being expanded to include people who are not terminally ill, pointing out the example of what has happened in Canada, around 5 percent of all deaths are now by lethal injection.