The John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family pointed out the weakness of the opposition to the legislation and blamed 60 years of failed catechetical instruction.
LONDON — A pro-life advocacy group founded by former members of the Pontifical Academy for Life has released a strongly worded statement in response to a recent vote in the U.K.’s House of Commons to legalize physician-assisted suicide.
The John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family pointed out the weakness of the opposition to the legislation and blamed 60 years of failed catechetical instruction after Members of Parliament (MPs) voted to pass the “Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill.”
The legislation, which passed by 319 votes to 291 and will now move to the House of Lords, came just days after MPs had granted legal immunity to any woman who procures her own abortion, even up to the moment of birth.
The academy said that although the margin of victory for the assisted-suicide bill’s proponents appeared small, the figures “fail to reflect the true scale of the defeat” for those defending life.
It pointed out that although most Members of Parliament opposing the bill raised concerns about the specifics of the legislation, the lawmakers “expressed support for assisted suicide in principle, while only a “small minority opposed the change on fundamental moral grounds.”
The John Paul II Academy, founded in 2017 by former members of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), noted that principled objections rooted in fundamental moral and natural-law principles were largely absent from the public debate.
Instead, it said supporters of the bill framed their arguments around individual “choice, autonomy, and compassion,” often appealing to consequentialist reasoning (that the morality of an action is to be judged solely by its consequences) and utilitarianism (that an action is right if it is useful or for the benefit of a majority).
Meanwhile, the counterarguments were “not persuasive,” the academy said, as they were “based on fear of coercion, a lack of real choice, and unintended consequences.”
The John Paul II Academy’s statement cited the Hippocratic Oath’s ancient injunction against administering deadly drugs or abortive remedies, underscoring the medical profession’s traditional commitment to “do no harm.”
It also highlighted words of Pope Leo XIV, who told lawmakers on June 21 that the natural law, inscribed in men’s hearts as stated in Romans 2:15, is the “compass by which to take bearings in legislating.” It is also a “universal law,” the statement continued, that underpins international human-rights agreements affirming the inviolable dignity of the human person.
The statement lamented a “moral collapse” in formerly Christian societies, reflected in a “failure over the past 60 years of Catholic teachers, catechists and theologians to promote both the spiritual” and, quoting John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae, “the anthropological reasons upon which respect for every human life is based.”
Referencing Pope Leo XIV’s praise of St. Thomas More’s unwavering commitment to truth — even at the cost of his life — the academy warned that many contemporary political leaders, having lost sight of these truths, “are prepared to sacrifice the weakest and most vulnerable to the culture of death.”
The John Paul II Academy’s statement closed by appealing to Pope Leo and bishops to renew catechetical efforts so that the faithful “can fulfill the Lord’s exhortation to be the salt of the earth and a light to the world.”
“Only through an authentic catechesis that teaches the supremacy of God’s law and equips the faithful to recognise intrinsic evil can we convince wider society that all innocent human life deserves equal protection under the law,” the statement concluded.
The Register asked the Pontifical Academy for Life if it would be issuing a statement in response to the two recent bills passed in the House of Commons. It responded by referring to a June 20 statement of Cardinal Vincent Nichols of Westminster on the assisted-suicide bill.
Cardinal Nichols called the vote “a watershed moment in the history of our country” that “fundamentally changes society’s long-held values and relationships on matters of life and death.” He said that “every effort must be made to limit the damage that will be done by this decision” and to continue to “live by the teaching given to us by God.”