Advance Decisions and Ethical Choices
Welcome to the website of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre’s ‘Advance Decisions and Ethical Choices’ Project. Here you will find resources that provide a Catholic viewpoint and practical guidance regarding:
• Advance Statements;
• Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA);
• Advance Decisions to Refuse Treatment (ADRT).
This project was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Sisters of the Holy Cross Charitable Trust.
Key Resources
Access our interactive Toolkit, where you can explore and record different options for planning treatment decisions in advance:
Access our Q&A guide on advance statement, LPAs, and advance decisions:
Access our Advance Statement (General Instructions):
Advance Statement (General Instructions)
You will also find explainer videos below covering different aspects of the Toolkit.
‘The possibility of planning our treatment decisions in advance, especially for a time when we are close to the end of life and unable to make those decisions ourselves due to illness, has long appealed to many. Doing so can provide much reassurance to those who are anxious about the perils of both over-treatment and under-treatment. At the same time, many are also looking for ethical guidance on how to make these decisions, so that they will be in accordance with the values of their faith.
I thank the Anscombe Bioethics Centre for producing these high-quality and user-friendly resources, which will be of great help to both the Catholic community and those of other traditions, who share with us the value of respect for the dignity of all human life. The law in England and Wales on advance decisions, advance statements and Lasting Powers of Attorney is not always easy to grasp, but these resources help break down the different elements and provide guidance on how to use them in the light of Catholic moral values. I highly recommend these resources to patients, their loved ones, chaplains, and all those whose work relates to the Mental Capacity Act 2005.’
+Paul Mason
Lead Bishop for Healthcare, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales
Advance Decisions and Ethical Choices: Video
The first few videos are available in this slider. To see our full range of videos, please click the button below:
Introduction to the ‘Advance Decisions and Ethical Choices’ Project
In this video, you will find a general introduction to the Anscombe Bioethics Centre’s ‘Advance Decisions and Ethical Choices’ Project and its resources.
The Toolkit
In this video, you will find a general introduction to the Ethical and Practical Toolkit, one of the Project’s key resources.
Catholic Teaching on Withdrawing Treatment
In this video, you will find a summary of Catholic teaching on withdrawing treatment.
What is Mental Capacity?
In this video, you will find an introduction to mental capacity law in England and Wales.
Advance Statements
In this video, you will find an introduction to making advance statements.
Project Co-Leads
Dr Michael Wee
Associate Research Fellow, The Anscombe Bioethics Centre
Dr Mehmet Çiftçi
Public Bioethics Fellow, The Anscombe Bioethics Centre (2023–2025)
Advisory Panel
Prof. David Albert Jones
Director, The Anscombe Bioethics Centre
Dr Mary Neal
Reader in Law, Strathclyde University
Dannielle Gieryńska
PhD candidate in Mental Capacity Law, University of Cambridge
Dr Elizabeth Toy
Consultant Clinical Oncologist, Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust
Dr Chris Wojtulewicz
Education and Research Officer, The Anscombe Bioethics Centre (2021–2023)
Elizabeth Bano
Director, Charism Consultants
Fr Robert Gay OP
Moral theologian
Maggie Doherty
Director, The Centre for the Art of Dying Well, St Mary’s University, Twickenham
Dr Siobhan Barrie
Consultant in Neurological Rehabilitation Medicine
Fr Giles Pinnock
Roman Catholic Chaplain, Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
Acknowledgements
The Anscombe Bioethics Centre wishes to thank all those who took time to give feedback on the project’s aims and draft outputs at various stages in the project’s timeline. We are also grateful to the Oxford Oratory for the use of their parish hall in Feb 2025 for a consultation session on draft project documents.
Sincerest Thanks for Your Support
Staff are grateful to all those who sustained the Centre in the past by their prayers and the generous financial support from trusts, organisations, communities and especially from individual donors, including the core funding that came through the Day for Life fund and so from the generosity of many thousands of parishioners. We would finally like to acknowledge the support the Centre has received from the Catholic community in Ireland, especially during the pandemic when second collections were not possible.
We would like to emphasise that, though the Centre is now being closed, these donations have not been wasted but have helped educate and support generations of conscientious healthcare professionals, clerics, and lay people over almost 50 years. This support has also helped prevent repeated attempts to legalise euthanasia or assisted suicide in Britain and Ireland from 1993 till the Centre closed.