On July 17, the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, alongside several other groups, filed a complaint against the state of New York for the implementation of doctor-assisted suicide, known by its proponents as Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD). The sisters object to any forced participation in the MAiD program and filed suit arguing that the law, set to take effect this August, has not provided proper protections for their religious order.
Implementation of the new law comes with the expectation that healthcare providers and staff are required to inform patients about their option to end their own life through the new system. While the law doesn’t require nuns or religious sisters to directly assist in a suicide, opt-out requirements do not allow the nuns to refuse to inform a patient in their care about it. Failure to inform patients about the program under current regulations would mean that these groups would face heavy fines and sanctions.
Under the law passed in February, these organizations would be forced to compromise their beliefs. The law requires that a patient must “be able to self-administer the medication” and would compel Catholic ministries to inform patients of their eligibility to kill themselves, contrary to Catholic teaching.
“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,” Diocese of Rockville Centre Bishop John O. Barres wrote in a strongly worded statement condemning the law.
The nuns cite First Amendment protections against compelled speech, arguing that they are under no obligation to inform patients of the program, believing that it is morally wrong to aid in the suicide of a patient.
“We will never submit to New York’s culture of death,” Barres declared.
With the bill coming into effect August 6, the Catholic institutions seek to avoid legal punishment for their beliefs on the sanctity of human life.
“Christ the Divine Physician calls us to accompany the sick and dying with compassion, not abandon them to death,” Barres stated.
In addition to merely informing patients about the program, according public interest religious liberty legal defense fund Becket, one of the organizations filing the complaint, “These ministries cannot prescribe lethal suicide drugs, direct patients to obtain them, or help facilitate a patient’s suicide in any way. Yet New York’s Medical Aid in Dying Act (MAID) will force them to do exactly that.”
Such demands are unthinkable to ask a Catholic order to carry out.
“For over 125 years, we have ministered to the poor who are dying of cancer as if they were Christ Himself. 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,” Mother Marie Edward, O.P., Superior General of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, lamented.
Mother Alice Marie Monica of the Little Sisters of the Poor echoed a similar belief, stating, “We have served God by welcoming the elderly poor and dying into our homes for nearly 200 years. Our calling is to protect and care for needy seniors, not steer them toward suicide. We will remain true to that mission, whatever the cost.”
Despite this significant pushback to the new law and a request for comment by the National Catholic Register, neither the New York attorney general’s office nor the New York Department of Health has issued a statement on the matter.
Upon passage of the law in February, Governor Kathy Hochul (D-NY), citing a right to bodily autonomy, claimed that the system allows “for 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.”
More from IRD:
As Illinois Advances Assisted Suicide, Opponents Warn of Devalued Life
Little Sisters of the Poor Seek Women’s Rights
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