The Most Rev. Jonathan Sentamu, Archbishop of York, has spoken against assisted suicide in England.

The archbishop responded to a poll of 1,000 Britons showing that 73 percent believe family members should not be prosecuted for helping a relative to commit suicide.

“One thousand people out of about 61 million really is not very much guidance,” Archbishop Sentamu said. “Once you begin to open this particular door, it won’t be long before you start having mercy killings.”

The best-selling author Terry Pratchett, who has Alzheimer’s disease, has endorsed the idea of physicians helping patients kill themselves if tribunals determine that those patients are of sound mind.

“I would rather listen to the voices of disabled people than to the voices of celebrities or the voices of 1,000 people in an opinion poll,” Archbishop Sentamu said.