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Religious Lobby Groups Secretly Funding ‘Grassroots’ Anti-Assisted Dying Campaigns

As MPs prepare for a landmark vote on legalizing assisted dying in England and Wales, an in-depth investigation has uncovered the concealed religious interests secretly funding and coordinating campaigns that claim to represent grassroots opposition from healthcare workers and disabled individuals.

The assisted dying debate has been shaped by vocal campaigns like Our Duty of Care, styled as a movement of concerned medical professionals, and Not Dead Yet, ostensibly representing disabled people’s perspectives. However, financial records and cross-referenced affiliations reveal these groups have undisclosed ties to conservative Christian lobbyists motivated by religious doctrine, not the impartial concerns of their purported constituents.

Evangelical Ties and Disguised Funding

Our Duty of Care presents itself as an independent campaign of doctors and nurses, with a website featuring medics in scrubs. Yet analysis shows the group shares an office and spokesperson with the evangelical Christian Medical Fellowship. It also receives funding from Care (Christian Action, Research and Education), a lobby group known for opposing abortion, sex education, gay marriage, and LGBTQ+ rights.

Similarly, Not Dead Yet claims to amplify disabled voices but has held joint protests with Christian Concern, a prominent evangelical organization that views assisted dying as a “dark anti-gospel” representing “rebellion against God.” The group also accepted money from Care to fund a parliamentary researcher.

Manufacturing False Impressions

Experts suggest these practices amount to astroturfing – disguising orchestrated campaigns as organic public opinion. By fronting doctors and disabled people without disclosing religious backers, an impression is manufactured that opposition to assisted dying reforms is more widespread and representative than polling indicates.

They’re giving this false impression that they are someone they’re not. It makes it seem like the issue is much more closely divided than I think it really is.

– Amy McKay, associate professor of political science at Exeter University

One of the largest surveys on the topic, carried out by Opinium, found 75% of UK adults support legalizing assisted dying, including clear majorities among Christians and disabled respondents. The gulf between public sentiment and the image projected by secretive lobbying efforts raises concerns.

Eroding Democratic Transparency

As parliamentarians weigh the profound implications of assisted dying, the opaque interests shaping a pivotal national dialogue risk undermining informed debate. MPs and the public alike are entitled to understand the honest motivations of groups vying to influence policy that affects everyone.

If groups are trying to influence public policy decisions, and these public policy decisions affect the lives of people in this country, clearly we need to know what their real motives are.

– Steven Kettell, reader in politics at Warwick University

Religious participation in public discourse is not inherently problematic, but transparency is essential when hidden agendas supplant open discussion of an issue that is literally a matter of life and death. Concealed campaigning does a disservice to a society grappling with ethically complex questions that deserve clear-eyed and good-faith engagement.

As the assisted dying bill comes to a vote, the integrity of the preceding debate itself will be judged. Clandestine lobbying threatens to cloud the conscience of parliament and the people it represents. Casting light on the shadowy religious activism distorting perceptions is a vital step toward an honest moral reckoning on assisted dying.