Sarah Mullally speaks out against assisted suicide

The incoming archbishop of Canterbury has spoken out against assisted suicide, as a bill to legalize helping people end their lives narrowly passed in the House of Commons last year and is now being considered in the House of Lords in the U.K. Parliament. 

In an interview on the BBC’s “Today” program last week, Dame Sarah Mullally spoke with former U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, where she was asked to weigh in on “the assisted dying issue.” 

Sharing her experience working as a nurse and a priest, Mullally told May she had a “principled view against assisted dying.”

“I think that we need to care for the most vulnerable in our society, we need to have a view where everybody’s made in the image of God,” Mullally added. 

“Those who support the bill talk about choice,” she said. “I’m not sure we have a choice, not least that actually we don’t fund proper palliative care. I’m worried that people may make a decision for assisted dying because they’re not having the right palliative care or the right social care.”

Read: Faith-based providers may be forced to facilitate assisted suicides

Mullally shared her concerns about “a whole group of people who haven’t had a choice in life,” identifying them as “people who, because of inequality, are more likely to get cancer and be late to diagnose and then to die of it.”

She expressed concern that these people “may well be given options and feel that because of other people’s value judgments, the option is assisted dying and not chemotherapy and to fight for it.”

“Those safeguards are not in the bill, and my belief is I’m not sure any amendments will make it safe,” she asserted.

Last year, actress and disability rights campaigner Liz Carr, known for her role in the popular British series “Silent Witness,” spoke out firmly against the legalization of assisted suicide, warning that it poses serious risks to disabled people.

In the BBC documentary “Better Off Dead?,” she presented testimonies from disabled individuals who had been told by others that they would be “better off dead.”

Carr pointed to Canada’s experience, where the law initially limited assisted suicide to terminal cases but later expanded to include those facing unbearable suffering, including people struggling with poverty or mental illness. She has expressed concern that similar legal changes in the U.K. could lead to vulnerable people choosing death due to a lack of adequate support, not because of genuine personal choice.

Mullally’s comments about assisted dying come as the U.K. Parliament is considering the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill. The bill enables adults in England and Wales with terminal illnesses to make a declaration announcing their intent to end their life that must be signed by the patient as well as a medical professional and another person. 

Patients seeking to end their life must undergo an evaluation by a second doctor and have their request approved by an Assisted Dying Review Panel. The legislation states that doctors are not required to participate in assisted suicide, clarifying that forcing people to request assisted suicide or administer the process constitutes an offense, as does the falsification or destruction of documentation related to it.

The bill passed the House of Commons, the lower chamber of the British Parliament, in a 314-291 vote on June 20, 2025. Support for the measure fell largely along party lines, with most members of the Conservative Party opposing the bill and most members of the ruling Labour Party supporting it. The bill is now in the House of Lords, the upper chamber of the U.K. Parliament, where it is awaiting further action.

Mullally’s remarks about assisted dying come as the incoming leader of the Church of England has faced criticism for progressive positions on other social issues. The Most Rev. Laurent Mbanda, who leads the Primate Council of the global Anglican movement Gafcon, expressed concern in an Oct. 3, 2025, statement that Mullally’s selection as the archbishop of Canterbury “makes it impossible for Canterbury to function as a unifying role within the Communion.”

“When she was consecrated in 2015, she took an oath to ‘banish and drive away all strange and erroneous doctrine contrary to God’s Word,’” Mbanda recalled. “And yet, far from banishing such doctrine, Bishop Mullally has repeatedly promoted unbiblical and revisionist teachings regarding marriage and sexual morality.”

“Anglicans believe that the church has been given authority by God to establish rites and ceremonies and to settle doctrine controversy, ‘and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word’ (Article XX),” he added. “The church cannot bless or affirm what God has condemned (Numbers 23:8, 24:13). This, however, is precisely what Bishop Mullally has sought to allow.”

Archbishop Henry Ndukuba of the Church of Nigeria also lamented Mullally’s appointment, alleging that it runs afoul of “the majority of Anglicans who are unable to embrace female headship in the episcopate.” Ndukuba’s remarks come as Mullally is slated to become the first female Archbishop of Canterbury in the history of the Church of England.