Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

British parliamentarians on Sept. 11 soundly rejected a right-to-die bill that would have allowed people with less than six months to live to end their lives legally. Only 118 members of Parliament voted in favor of the bill; 330 voted against it. The bill had faced strong opposition from various religious leaders in the United Kingdom. A letter written by Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, and signed by leading representatives of the Roman Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu and Sikh faiths said the proposed bill crossed “a legal and ethical Rubicon” and would turn suicide into a social norm. Meanwhile, across the pond in the United States, a measure that would allow physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs to the terminally ill passed the California statehouse and was on its way to Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk on Sept. 11.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Pope Francis greets Professor Joseph Stiglitz at the "Debt Crisis in the Global South" meeting at the Vatican in June 2024 (Vatican Media)
An interview on economics and Catholic social teaching with Joseph E. Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winning economist and a professor at Columbia University.
Kevin ClarkeApril 03, 2025
Lesson one: I had to buy more stamps.
Valerie SchultzApril 03, 2025
Celebrating the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea should give new energy to evangelization efforts, a new document from the International Theological Commission says.
In this episode of “Inside the Vatican,” host Colleen Dulle and veteran Vatican correspondent Gerard O’Connell walk us through the pontiff’s recovery, including “slight improvements” in his speech.
Inside the VaticanApril 03, 2025