Pray with us ahead of the assisted suicide votes in Westminster and Holyrood

Last year, two private member bills on assisted suicide were introduced in Scotland and Westminster (applying to England and Wales). In Holyrood, Liam McArthur, Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP, introduced the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill and in Westminster, Kim Leadbeater Labour MP introduced the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.

Both argue for personal autonomy and place a responsibility on the state and medical practitioners to facilitate an assisted death to patients who request it. To legalise assisted suicide in respective nations means to do so at the expense of protecting the most vulnerable in society. The elderly, women and those living in poverty, with a disability or from minority ethnic backgrounds are at risk of a wrongful death due to health inequalities and lack of services in the community.

As the Evangelical Alliance, we have set out our opposition to both bills and continue to argue for each person to be given dignity in the final days of life through accessible palliative care support in the community and home. We are grateful to the many members who have emailed or arranged a time to meet their local representative. Now we are calling on the church to pray.

Important dates to pray ahead of time:

• In Holyrood the stage 1 debate and vote will be on Tuesday, 13 May.
• In Westminster the report stage debate takes place on Friday, 16 May. It’s possible third reading vote is on 16^th or a different day (tbc).

We have produced a prayer guide which you can download below. We invite you to commit to praying personally or to gather as a church community.