New York bishop and Religious join lawsuit against assisted suicide law

‘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 Barres of Rockville Centre, New York, and four communities of religious sisters filed a lawsuit on against New York state officials over a law that they say would force them to participate in physician-assisted suicide.

In February, New York’s Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, signed a bill legalising physician-assisted suicide, which takes effect in August. In a filing on 16 July, the plaintiffs said the law’s opt-outs are limited and place additional requirements on religious organisations.

“We will never submit to New York’s culture of death,” Barres said in a statement through his attorneys at the Becket Fund, a Washington, DC-based law firm that litigates religious liberty cases.

“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.”

The Diocese of Rockville Centre and the religious communities – the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Missionary Sisters of St Benedict and the Little Sisters of the Poor – all provide care for elderly and terminally ill people.

The plaintiffs argued that the law will require them to facilitate physician-assisted suicides in violation of their faith. 

In a statement on 20 July, Mother Mary Rose Heery, prioress general of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, said: “At our homes, we bring Christ’s unbounded love to elderly New Yorkers of every background and walk of life.”

“We strive to bring His compassion to those entrusted to our care, ensuring that no resident ever has to die alone,” she said. “This law strikes at the heart of that vocation.”

Mark Rienzi, president of the Becket Fund and the lead attorney for the healthcare ministries, said in a statement the same day: “New York is forcing sick and dying people to consider suicide at their lowest moment, regardless of whether they ask for it or not.”

“Worse, it’s conscripting the nuns who care for them into its suicide cult on pain of crushing fines and professional ruin,” Rienzi said. “That is both unconscionable and unconstitutional. We’re confident the federal courts will put a stop to it.”

Assisted dying – the right to die versus the right to life

Report warns of ‘particular challenges’ of assisted dying for faith-based hospices

Stay updated — add us as a preferred news source on Google: