New research reveals Christian groups’ scare mongering about the Assisted Dying Bill, and the huge funds available to religious groups campaigning against the Bill
New research published today by the British Humanist Association (BHA) reveals the extensive funding available for a fear mongering campaign by unrepresentative Christian groups over assisted dying. you can read it here
The research, ‘In Bad Faith’, published a few days ahead of a critical debate in the House of Lords on the Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill (12 May), contains scores of examples of systematic fear mongering, abuse, mis info rmation, bullying and hypocrisy by religious groups and leaders
Hanne Stinson , the BHA’s Executive Director, said,
“Our research shows Christian groups repeatedly telling the elderly that their children want to kill them for their inheritance or because they are a burden; that suffering is good for us; that we’ll soon be killing babies, and that the health services will kill people to save money and free up hospital beds. This is a concerted attempt to scare the public about a compassionate Bill with extremely tight safeguards against abuse.”
“Assisted dying is an important but also a highly emotive issue. What we need more than anything else is an open and honest public debate about it, but these Christian groups are pouring their enormous resources into a campaign that seems designed to ensure that open and honest debate is impossible. Why are they doing this? I have to assume that it’s because they know that with around 80% of the population, including some 80% of Christians, wanting an Assisted Dying Bill, they cannot win that debate. And it seems that if they cannot win the debate honestly, they have no compunctions about trying to win it dishonestly.”
Massive funding
BHA’s study also shows that that faith-based campaigning groups have an annual income of at least £11.8 million, without counting Anglican or Catholic Church funding. The Catholic Church is spending hundreds of thousands more on what is described as the biggest political campaign in the Church’s history.
Biased coverage in the religious press
Research of coverage in the Christian press over a two-year period shows that 82% of news coverage was not balanced. 76% of Church Times readers disagree with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Head of the Catholic Church that a right to die would create a duty to die (their central argument), but the religious press carefully avoids saying anything about Christians who support the Bill.
Ms Stinson commented,
“Surveys of their own readers and other opinion polls show that the majority of Christians agree with us and with the rest of the public that it is time for a more compassionate approach to people who are terminally ill and suffering unbearably. The views of millions of Christians are being ignored by their own religious leaders and the religious press.”
Only two of the ten religious press researched are subject to Press Complaints Commission (PCC) oversight. Ms Stinson confirmed she has made a complaint to the PCC about the Church Times, and has raised the issue of the religious media’s accountability with the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
Hypocrisy
Hanne Stinson added,
“The current Pope endorsed the death penalty as morally more acceptable than allowing a terminally ill person to ask for help to die peacefully in their final few days. That sounds like straightforward hypocrisy to me. There is also clear evidence that Christian campaigners try to avoid mentioning their faith. With double standards like this, is it any wonder?”
“Christian campaigning groups and religious leaders seem to show little compassion for the terminally ill and their relatives, and want to deny everyone, religious or non-religious, who is terminally ill and has decided that they do not wish to suffer any more, any right to choose to die peacefully and with dignity. Having realised that their faith-based arguments will not win the day, they seem to have no compunctions about using dishonest arguments to terrify the elderly and mislead the general public. We think most people, not least the very large number of Christians who support the Assisted Dying Bill, will be shocked to hear what these Christian groups have been saying.”
UPDATE 11/05/06
On the eve of the second reading of a Bill to legalise assisted dying, national humanist representatives have re-asserted their commitment to this compassionate extension of the law.
Earlier this week, the British Humanist Association released a hard-hitting report that exposed systematic misinformation, scare-mongering, and hypocrisy among Christian groups opposing the Bill. The report has been well-received by peers intending to support the Bill tomorrow and many of them intend to refer to it in the debate. You can read the report at http://tinyurl.com/nxln7
BHA executive director Hanne Stinson condemned religious opposition to Lord Joffe’s Bill as deeply immoral. She said,
“There is overwhelming public support for the option of assisted dying to be made available. This Bill gives terminally ill people that autonomy and choice, and contains ample safeguards to ensure that the choices made by those experiencing unbearable suffering are informed and genuine. Who are the Bishops to deny people this freedom?”
UPDATE 12/05/06
National humanist representatives have expressed bitter disappointment at the defeat today of Lord Joffe’s Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill
Hanne Stinson , BHA executive director, commented, ‘This Bill posed no threat to patients who do not want to take advantage of assisted dying and there was an opt-out clause for doctors with a conscientious objection to ending their patients’ suffering in this way. This vote has done nothing but further delay a Bill that we are sure will eventually be passed. In the meantime the House of Lords has condemned yet more terminally ill patients to prolonged pain and suffering.
‘Polls show that as many as 82% of people in the UK support the right to physician assisted suicide and Parliament simply cannot continue to ignore the growing public demand for compassion for those who want to die with dignity.’
Earlier this week the BHA released a report, ‘In Bad Faith: the facts about how religious groups are campaigning on assisted dying’ which exposed Christian campaigns as wildly out of touch with the individual believers they claim to represent, and contained hard-hitting evidence of systematic mis info rmation and scare-mongering. ‘Unfortunately it seems that scare-mongering and dishonest campaigning trump rational debate’ said Ms Stinson.
ENDS
Contact:
Andrew Copson by email or on 07855 380633 or Hanne Stinson by email or on 07764947249.
NOTES
A copy of the report can be obtained online here or by telephoning 020 7079 3580.
You can read the text of the presentation by Hanne Stinson, made as she launched the report, here