The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, which was narrowly passed in the Commons on Friday, has been met with apprehension from rabbis, one of whom said he felt “scared and deeply concerned”.
The Bill, which was passed by backed by 314 votes to 291 after several hours of debate, will give terminally ill adults with less than six months to live the right to end their own lives.
The use a lethal medication, which the patients would have to be capable of taking by themselves, would need the approval of two independent medical practitioners, and, in some cases, a panel including a senior legal figure, a psychiatrist, and a social worker.
Masorti rabbi, Jeremy Gordon, who is representing the movement on this issue, said that the passing of the Bill had left him feeling “scared and deeply concerned”.
He told the JC: “I’m saddened the Bill has cleared this step. I share with its supporters a deep desire to reduce suffering at end of life, but I’m deeply concerned that the much-vaunted safeguards are not safe, either as they currently stand or, as may be expected, based on the experience of other jurisdictions.”
Rabbi Gordon said that the Bill put “the elderly, the ill and the weak in an incredibly vulnerable position” and placed “medics in positions for which they are not trained and are, based on my understanding, unprepared”.
He added: “There is a huge amount to do to provide effective end-of-life medical care to ensure those suffering do not experience pain and are given as much agency as enjoy the days they have left. But this is not that.”
The Chief Rabbi, while unable to comment on the passing of the Bill due to being in transit, raised concerns before the Bill was debated in November, where it was supported in the Commons by a larger majority of 55.
In a letter to MPs prior to November’s debate, he wrote that he had “deep concerns” about the implications of the Bill, which he called “a fundamental moral challenge to our society, which I believe should trouble people of all faiths and none”.
He said the change in assisted dying legislation would “simultaneously impose a new and immeasurable pressure upon terminal patients, who are already extremely vulnerable” and that their decision to choose between life and death “simply cannot be protected against all manner of external influences, regardless of the proposed safeguards”.
Citing data from Oregon, where assisted dying is legal, Rabbi Mirvis said that it showed that nearly half of terminally ill patients who had opted to end their lives gave “the encumbrance” upon family and friends as one of their reasons, and that in Belgium and the Netherlands, “it did not take long for ‘mental anguish’ to become considered a legal and legitimate cause for assisted dying”. He added that it had since become legal to end the lives of children, “who are too young to fully comprehend what is happening to them”, saying that this showed “the line between dying and killing is becoming blurred”.
He called for a campaign pushing for universal access to “the best possible” palliative care. “100,000 people in the UK die each year without receiving the end-of-life care that they need,” he wrote.
However, Rabbi Jonathan Romain, former rabbi of Maidenhead Synagogue and the convenor of the Reform Beit Din, said he welcomed the passing of the Bill.
Speaking to the JC in his capacity as chair of Religious Alliance for Dignity in Dying, Rabbi Romain said it had “given immense hope both to two separate groups: those who are terminally ill, dying in pain and wish for an early release, and also to anyone who might be in that situation in the future and who would like have the comfort of knowing they could avoid an unbearable end if that was what they were facing”.
He added: “There is nothing sacred about suffering and a Jewish response should be a compassionate response. My support for the Bill has been guided by the religious ideal that you shall not force people to have a bad death when they could have a better option if they so wished.”
Co-leads of Progressive Judaism Rabbi Charley Baginsky and Rabbi Josh Levy called the Bill “among the most challenging ethical and theological issues of our time” and that Progressive clergy “represent a breadth of opinion on this complex issue”.
As “facilitators of compassion and understanding, not arbiters of judgment” their “shared commitment” was to their congregants, they said. “Regardless of the legal framework that emerges, all our clergy are united in their dedication to supporting individuals and families navigating the profound challenges of end-of-life decisions.”
The Bill will not become law immediately. It firstly has to go through the House of Lords before MPs get a final vote after looking at amendments put forward in the Lords.
Unless it runs out of Parliamentary time or peers against the Bill find a way of blocking it, it is at this stage that the Bill would officially become law.
It would then be expected take about four years for the changes in the law to be implemented.
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