UCB Broadcast April 2006
Hello and welcome to the Parliamentary prayer update, my name is Gareth Wallace and I work in Westminster for the Evangelical Alliance Public Affairs Department.
Consultation document
Last month we mentioned that some of the controversial aspects of the Equality Bill notably relating to religious and sexual orientation discrimination have been deferred to a major government consultation exercise program for the spring called the Discrimination Law Review.
The new legislation and regulations would extend the grounds for discrimination to ‘good and services’. Therefore anything that could be described as a good or a service could be affected by these measures which could potentially affect all church community activities and Christian charity work.
This consultation has the potential to define the relationship between religion and state and society for the foreseeable future.
Therefore every Christian or religious group is strongly encouraged to respond. The deadline to respond to this consultation is 5 June 2006.
A link to the consultation website is available consider responding to the consultation. A link to the consultation document is available in the latest edition of our Prayer and Campaigns at the Evangelical Alliance website at www.eauk.org/pq
Please pray for the Christian churches and Networks who are working on this issue and who will be meeting the Government minister in charge of steering these proposals through parliament.
Please pray that no church community projects or Christian Charities will be adversely affected by the changes.
Assisted Dying Bill
On 12 May the House of Lords will debate the ‘Assisted Dying for the Terminally Ill Bill introduced by Lord Joffe. Under the Bill a doctor would be allowed to give a prescription for a lethal dose of drugs to an adult patient who was ‘suffering unbearably’ from a ‘terminal illness’ who requested such a prescription and who ‘did not lack capacity’ to make such a request. As one can see there are allot of very difficult to qualify definitions within the Bill that make it very problematic.
The Assisted Dying Bill although not a Government proposal has considerable public support. It could make progress in Parliament in 2006 and while it is unlikely to become law without Government support a real and serious risk remains.
The Assisted Dying Bill is really an assisted Suicide Bill where the Doctor would provide you with the drugs to administer to yourself. There is no moral difference between this and full Euthanasia where the Doctor would actually administer the drugs to kill you.
The present law reflects society’s judgement that the lives of all patients are worthwhile, even if they might lose sight of their own worth and ask for their lives to be ended.
Doctors have a duty to alleviate suffering they should kill the pain, not the patient. It is problematic that many patients do not have access to good palliative care. Palliative care therefore should be extended and improved through increasing funding.
The hospice movement exemplifies how people can have a dignified and peaceful death and Christians in particular are challenged to become involved in supporting it.
The experience of the American state of Oregon has been used to justify the Bill but Evidence does not confirm Oregon to be abuse free.
Care not Killing’ (CNK) is a new UK based alliance of individuals and organisations (including the Evangelical Alliance) with 3 key aims:
1) To bring together human rights groups, healthcare groups, palliative care groups and faith based organisations with the aim of promoting more and better palliative care.
2) To ensure that existing laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide are not weakened or repealed during the lifetime of the current Parliament.
3) To inform public opinion against further weakening the law. For more information about the Bill and how to get involved in supporting Care not Killing please go to www.carenotkilling.org.uk
Please pray for the second reading, the first full debate in the House of Lords, which is due to take place on the 12th May this year.
Pray that many members of the House of Lords will speak out against this proposed legislation and that the practical and moral difficulties of making such a law work in practice will lead to the Bill being defeated.
Please consider writing to your MP to voice your concerns regarding the Bill. Even though the Bill is starting in the House of Lords it would have to be voted on by MP’s in order to become law.
Gender Recognition
The Evangelical Alliance has just published a guidance booklet on the Gender Recognition Act.
It contains key advice to help ministers and clergy respond to transsexual people who, for example, may wish to marry in church is contained in a new booklet that has been published by the Evangelical Alliance.
The Alliance Guide to Churches on the Gender Recognition Act has been sent free of charge to all Evangelical Alliance member churches.
We have worked with the Government from 2000 to 2005 in order to present an evangelical viewpoint, in the light of controversial proposals to grant special anti discrimination rights to transsexual people.
Additional copies of the booklet are available at a cost of £5 and can be ordered by telephoning 020 7207 2100.
Further Prayer and Action
For further insights on these and other issues The Evangelical Alliance Public Affairs department produces a monthly parliamentary magazine, PQ, and a monthly ‘Prayer and Campaigns’ action and prayer sheet. Both of these are available on our website www.eauk.org along with topical political briefing material. If you have any questions please e-mail the public affairs team at pub-aff@eauk.org
Thank you.
