Church must opposed assisted suicide to protect the vulnerable says new bishop

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Assisted suicide must be opposed because of the pressure it will put on terminally ill people, the Bishop-elect of Elphin, Kevin Doran has said.

The announcement that Fr Doran, from Dublin, will be the next Bishop of Elphin, succeeding Christopher Jones, was made yesterday.

Fr Doran also reiterated the Church’s stance on marriage.

Speaking to The Irish Independent he said: “Obviously I respect loving relationships of all kinds but marriage is unique”.

On the subject of assisted suicide he said: “Somebody might feel that because it is a legal possibility then it would be the decent thing to do, to save their relative’s difficulty”.

He said as Bishop of Elphin he will be “strongly advocating that the Church and Church agencies be unambiguous in their witness to the dignity of human life at all stages”.

Fr Doran previously resigned from the board of the Mater hospital in Dublin after it agreed to comply with the Protection of Human Right During Pregnancy Act even though it allows abortion when a woman is deemed to be ‘suicidal’.