The war on the weak and the good fight

Martina Purdy

When Andrew Black was a boy, his mother would often say: “As long as you have your health, son…”. And he would nod in agreement.  But years later, when he became a chaplain in a Belfast hospital, having been ordained a priest, he was meeting people, who no longer had their health, people in pain, people who were dying. So Fr Black learned to say something else:  “As long as you have your faith…”

Yes, health is wealth, but Fr Black came to know at a deep level that true treasure is found through faith in God’s loving plan for our lives. His homily came back to me as I listened to the debate in Parliament last week on the ‘assisted dying’ bill  – and the so-called ‘right to die’. This was a battle royale. And those who sought to kill the bill at its second reading lost 330 votes to 275. The fight is not over, but the National Health Service, once the pride of Britain, is in danger of sinking into a National Death Service.

We all need to wake up to this ‘war on the weak’.  As the post-election Dail comes to life, let us remember that one of the final acts of the last legislature was to note a report on assisted dying by a Special Oireachtas Joint Committee.  Those in favour of ‘assisted dying’ speak of choice and compassion (the same language used in the abortion industry).

In a world where abuse of the vulnerable is rife, British MPs promised safeguards in the bill (yes, dying ‘safely’ is now a thing): two doctors will have to sign off before the patient is killed off. This drew howls from a retired friend: “I can hardly get seeing one doctor and I want to live!” 

One of the great ironies of this ‘end of life’ debate is that some of the same people who supported the costly Covid lock-down, apparently to protect the weakest in our society,  are the same people pushing ‘assisted death’. It is the same for those who wring their hands over the suicide rate.

I am far from reassured that ‘assisted death’ will not usurp palliative care. Let’s face it: ‘assisted dying’ is a lot cheaper than valuing life.

Opposed

Florence Esholomi, MP for Brixton, passionately opposed the Westminster bill.  “We should be helping people to live comfortable pain-free lives on their own terms before we think about making it easier for them to die,” she said.

The MP also argued that it would be the poorest patients – the ones who already suffer the most healthwise – who would be most adversely affected: “True compassion should have equality at its heart.” Of course, it is all too human to try to avoid suffering, what Christ calls the cross. But early death is no solution.  

Consider Deborah Binner, whose husband was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. His story is told in the documentary Simon’s Choice.  After Simon’s two failed suicide attempts, she very reluctantly accompanied him to a clinic in Switzerland. 

Binner said it left her traumatised in a way that her young daughter’s “gentle” death from bone cancer a few years before had not. “People would say, ‘Isn’t it brilliant that he knows what he wants and can have it. But it was never that simple.I didn’t care what state he was in, or might be in, he was my husband – as valuable in a wheelchair as anyone out of it.”

In Canada (where assisted dying is legal for the terminally ill) I know of one woman who is agonising over her father’s choice. She feels cheated out of love and precious time – and is struggling to forgive him. In my experience those who run from the cross meet a heavier one.

The late RTÉ journalist, Charlie Bird, faced his Motor Neurone Disease head on before his death. Though he no longer practised his Catholic faith, he declared faith in goodness.  “Some days I wish I was dead,” he said, “but I have a lot to live for.” Charlies’s choice inspired many with his charity climb up Croagh Patrick – and he ended his days at home in love and care.

‘Dying with Dignity’ cannot simply mean a ‘pain-free’ death. Of course, one of the arguments in the British Parliament was that a majority of citizens favoured the right to die. “Never underestimate the stupidity of the people,” a Troubles-weary journalist used to say to me.

Blindness

It is not so much stupidity as blindness. The further we wonder from the light of Christ, the darker our lives become. Without faith, our lives – and our deaths – do not make sense. And, once the door is opened to ‘assisted dying’, it just gets wider. In Belgium,  voluntary child euthanasia followed a change in the law. Suffering is part of life’s journey, whether we have faith or not.

In fact it is in suffering that faith, and indeed hope and love, are magnified, and it is in suffering that we meet Christ, who is light in the shadow of death. In Florida five years ago, I encountered a priest called Fr Tom who spoke of his own faith experience, when his beloved mother began to suffer dementia. He had always vowed to keep her at home, but it became impossible as her illness developed. And, in the last 18 months of her life, he visited her every day in the nursing home, even though she had lost her faculties and had ceased to know who he was.

Yet, in  the last few days of her life, her gift of speech returned and he received a great gift too. “Do you know who I am?”  he asked.  She thought about it for a long time before answering.  “No,” she said. “I don’t know who you are… but I know that I love you.”

A devout Christian who lost her job for wearing a “Trust in Jesus’ badge has been offered her job back by store chain Target in Fargo, North Dakota, according to US media outlets.  Denise Kendrick claimed she was dismissed from her cashier’s job for wearing the Christian badge, even though others were wearing rainbows on theirs – a well-known symbol of the LBGTQ+ movement.

When Northern Ireland tops UK polls, it is too often for the wrong reason. Newly published research shows that NI adults are more likely to look at pornography online than any other part of the UK. Ofcom’s Nation report for 2024 indicates that  more than 430,000 adults in the north visited “pornographic content services” online in May 2024 – more than one third of the adult population. That was higher than the proportion of adults viewing similar content in Wales, Scotland and England.