Religious leaders fear 'right to die' law would turn into 'duty to die'
By Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

THE Archbishop of Canterbury has joined forces with the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster and the Chief Rabbi in an attempt to defeat the controversial Bill to allow “mercy killings”.

It is a measure of the strength of religious objection to the assisted dying Bill that Dr Rowan Williams, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and Sir Jonathan Sacks have united against it. They have issued joint statements before, but rarely on legislation up for debate in Parliament.

In a letter published in today’s Times, they say: “We are opposed to this Bill and to any measure that seeks to legalise assisted suicide or euthanasia. We believe that all human life is sacred and God-given with a value that is inherent, not conditional.”

Calling on peers to withhold support when the Bill is debated in the Lords today, the three religious leaders gave a warning that a right to die could become, for the terminally ill, a “duty to die”. the rest