From Seeds August – September 2025

What are your thoughts about assisted dying? Have you worked out your point of view (and has it changed over the years)?

Do you still have a host of different questions? The United Reformed Church has wrestled with the issues over the years and has returned to them as current legislative proposals pass through the UK’s parliaments.

On 20 June, Westminster MPs narrowly approved the landmark Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill by 314 votes to 291. If passed into law, the Bill could bring major social change by giving terminally ill adults in England and Wales the legal right to end their own lives. Issues around assisted dying are being discussed by legislators across the four nations. The Isle of Man allows assisted dying, and Jersey is in the latter stages of legal preparation for this.

The Scottish Parliament is working on detailed legislation with a bill having already passed Stage 1.

The Terminally Ill Adults Bill, passed by the House of Commons in Westminster, is now subject to further scrutiny through various stages in the House of Lords. MPs will then get a final say when they have looked at any proposed changes. This is the point at which the bill will officially become law, unless it runs out of parliamentary time or those in the House of Lords who oppose the bill find a way to block it.

The United Reformed Church’s General Assembly last discussed assisted dying in 2007. It said a number of things, including that, ‘as Christians, we regard all human life as being God given, and therefore precious; we believe that death is not the end and we have faith that there is a more perfect life to follow’. The URC recognised that ‘there is a time to die and that there are circumstances in which it will be wrong to continue to provide treatment designed to prolong life’.

The Church recognised the value of good palliative care and that additional resources were needed (even then) to make it more uniformly available. However, it also stated:

‘We could not support legislation that would empower medical staff to intervene in ways which deliberately seek to assist a patient to die. We would therefore oppose any change in the law to permit voluntary euthanasia or assisted suicide.’

As legislation advances in all of the UK’s four nations, the URC has offered prayers to help us all navigate the complex issues around assisted dying. Here is one of them. Others can be found on the URC website – just type ‘terminally ill’ into the search bar.

A FULLER LIFE AWAITS

Eternal One,
we pray for our legislators,
faced with complex lives, situations, and finances,
and trying to discern right from wrong,
in the face of high-powered campaigns.

Suffering Lord,
You walk with us in our pain, bewilderment, and grief,
give grace to those who approach the end of life,
wisdom to clinical staff who care for them,
and time for loving farewells.

Renewing Spirit,
remind us that death is not the end,
that a new, fuller, life awaits us,
where there will be no more death, sorrow,
mourning or crying.

Amen