SerpApi.Org
A group of religious healthcare workers is suing the state of New York for a law set to take effect in August that allows certain patients the option of assisted suicide.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Medical Aid in Dying Act into law last February, and under it, certain terminally ill adults are allowed to obtain a prescription for medication they may choose to self-administer to end their lives.
A group of Catholic healthcare ministries, represented by The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, filed a federal lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday, arguing that though the law says that healthcare providers and institutions are not required to participate in medical aid in dying, the law still exposes them to legal risk because it does not expressly protect all of the actions they consider participation.
“For over 125 years, we have ministered to the poor who are dying of cancer as if they were Christ Himself,” Mother Marie Edward, O.P., Superior General of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, said in a press release. “Our calling is to offer comfort, prayer, and loving medical care to those in their final days — not death. We pray the court will protect our freedom to remain faithful to that ministry God has entrusted to us.”
The lawsuit asks the courts to ensure the protection to administer care in accordance with the Catholic faith.
A person must meet all of the following requirements to be eligible for assisted suicide:
- Be 18 years or older.
- Be a New York resident.
- Have a terminal illness that two medical providers determined is expected to result in death within six months.
- Be mentally capable of making an informed healthcare decision.
- Be able to self-administer the medication.
Under the law, a doctor may prescribe the life-ending medication, but another person cannot administer it. It has to be self-administered.
When the law was signed, Hochul said it would allow the “terminally ill to peacefully and comfortably end their lives with dignity and compassion. ... New Yorkers deserve the choice to endure less suffering, not by shortening their lives, but by shortening their deaths — I firmly believe we made the right decision.”
Becket’s argument, on behalf of the Carmelite Sisters and other Catholic ministries, is that under Catholic teachings, they believe they cannot facilitate or cooperate with assisted suicide in any way, not just by prescribing the medication.
The lawsuit further says that the law does not clearly protect them from being required to permit the practice on their property, assist in coordinating it or transfer a patient for the purpose of obtaining it, and therefore the groups fear potential lawsuits.
“We will never submit to New York’s culture of death. Assisted suicide is a grave moral failure that puts the elderly, the disabled, and those suffering from mental and emotional illness at risk of abuse and manipulation,” Bishop John O. Barres, bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre, said via press release. “Christ the Divine Physician calls us to accompany the sick and dying with compassion, not abandon them to death. The court should protect that millennia-old mission.”
