Christians have continued to react with disappointment after MPs voted in favour legalising assisted suicide.
MPs voted 330 to 275 in support of Kim Leadbeater's assisted suicide bill after a five-hour debate in the Commons on Friday. The bill now faces further parliamentary scrutiny before it can become law.
Ross Hendry, CEO of Christian Action Research and Education (CARE), said the result was "deeply troubling", and that vulnerable and marginalised people in England and Wales "are fearful of a change in the law".
He dismissed promised safeguards saying there was "no such thing as a 'safe' assisted suicide law".
"Legalising assisted suicide would diminish the value we ascribe to human life in our legislation and our institutions and create a two-tier society where suicide prevention doesn't extend to all people. This would be a moral failure, and a huge step backwards," he said.
"As with other assisted suicide Bills in the past, there are no safeguards in this Bill that will rule out coercion of vulnerable people, and people ending their lives because they feel like a burden or lack proper support. There is no such thing as a 'safe' assisted suicide law.
"Parliament does have a responsibility to build better support for those who are dying but not through this dangerous Bill. We need a national conversation on how we ensure excellent, universally accessible end-of-life and palliative care, and stronger support for marginalised groups."
He ended by calling on parliamentarians to focus on improvements to palliative care, and reject the "dangerous and disproven" campaign for assisted suicide.
Apologist David Robertson said "there will be enormous pressure on the elderly to 'do the right thing' and save the NHS" or "save their inheritance for the kids".
Leadbeater has promised "the most robust and strongest set of safeguards and protections in the world", with sign-off requiring the approval of two doctors and a High Court judge.
Critics remain unpersuaded, though, and Robertson warned that once the law is passed "it will be added to and expanded".
The Family Education Trust has warned of a "slippery slope".
"Given the key context of the 'epidemic of elder abuse across the UK' ... introducing such a law here in Britain should be deeply concerning," it said in a new position paper on assisted suicide.
"Just as nothing in the two-doctor model enables proper diagnosis of depression, so the same constraints of doctor training or time with the patient prevent realistic detection of the more subtle pressures on an individual to end their own life by unscrupulous family and supposed friends, or manipulation into premature death.
"If we have a 'right to die', how could it make sense to limit it to any one cohort of suffering people? Once you set the precedent of medicalised killing, there are no rational grounds to restrict it."
