Editor’s note: If you would like to submit a letter for possible publication, please email it to editor@rationalist.com.au. See our Publishing Guideline Dear Editor, I was very frustrated when I read the article in the RSA Weekly (‘Archbishop makes plea against ‘kill teams’ in aged care’, CathNews, 11 December 2025) about Sydney’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Anthony Fisher in which he used such inappropriate and emotive terms as "assisted suicide" and "killing teams" . Such terms are frightening and offensive to people who are considering voluntary assisted dying (VAD). I wrote a letter to the archbishop, taking issue with many of his dogmatic and heartless points which expressed concern for everybody except the dying patients whose lives have become intolerable. They are the people most in need of care, but they get no sympathy from the archbishop. The points I covered were that:
Catholics loudly protest their right to object to VAD, but hypocritically and callously deny the right of residents in their aged care facilities to access VAD in accordance with their own consciences; VAD is not suicide, but rather it is a choice between two different ways of dying; opposition to VAD by the Catholic Church does not seem to be a loving and compassionate Christian response to suffering; opinion polls have consistently shown vast majority support for VAD, including among Catholics; Australia is a democracy, not a theocracy, and everybody has equally valued opinions, guided by th...
