The Archbishop of Canterbury and Euthanasia
In December, Dr Coggan, the Archbishop of Canterbury gave an address to the Royal Society of Medicine on the question of ending the lives of terminally ill patients. In our view, some of Dr Coggan’s statements, as reported in the Press, are far from helpful to the debate which is going on at present over the question of euthanasia. If Dr Coggan did not make out a case for euthanasia in certain cases, then he came very close to it. He acknowledged that he was treading on dangerous ground and was fully aware of the great dangers of legalised euthanasia.
While sympathising with conscientious doctors in the agonising decisions which they are sometimes called to make, and on which hangs, humanly speaking, the life or death of the patient, it would be a sad matter if any place whatsoever was given to the idea that their duty was anything less than to do all in their power to preserve life. We have reason to think that this is still the way that the majority of this dedicated profession regard their duty, though it is to be feared that some of the profession today may have a different view.
Roman Catholic Church Decline
The Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales has been showing a 4000 a year decline in baptisms over the last ten years according to recent figures put out. Only half of the 4 million Roman Catholics in England and Wales attend Mass. It would be gratifying to record these figures if it meant that the Roman Catholic Church loss was through conversion to Protestantism. Where the Roman Catholic Church is suffering loss through some of its people leaving, we fear that it is largely through these people giving up religion altogether.
Again, it would be foolish to take any decline in the Roman Catholic Church complacently. If she is declining in numbers in our country she is certainly not declining in influence. May the Lord in His mercy hasten the day when this evil system will be totally destroyed and those who were formerly under its power liberated through the Gospel of God’s grace.