“We will never submit to New York’s culture of death,” says Bishop John O. Barres in regard to new assisted suicide legislation.
A new New York state law requires healthcare workers to be active participants in promoting assisted suicide, argues a lawsuit filed on July 17 by the religious liberty law firm Becket. Parties to the suit include the Diocese of Rockville Center, New York, led by Bishop John O. Barres, and four religious communities devoted to the care of the sick and the dying: 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.
According to Becket, the law doesn't just mandate that all patients be informed of New York's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) policy -- which would already be objectionable to Catholic health care organizations because of the Church's teaching on the value of every life. Instead, the plaintiffs say, the law requires healthcare workers to go through every stage of preparation for assisted suicide with patients, short of administering the lethal drugs, or transfer them to a facility that will do so. There are very limited religious or conscience exemptions from the law (Christian Science practitioners, for example, are not bound by it), but plaintiffs say these do not apply in the case of Catholic healthcare organizations or religious communities.
Failure to comply with the law carries legal and financial penalties, serious enough to threaten the continuation of healthcare ministries.
A threat to misson
The July 17 suit, which seeks a federal stay of requirements, claims the New York law, the strictest of such MAiD laws in the United States, presents more than just a challenge to religious liberty. In its present form, it threatens the vary mission of these communities and their ministry to those who are facing terminal illness, often in poverty and alone.
When the Ven. Rose Hawthorne Lathrop, daughter of the novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, founded the home that would become the center of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne's ministry, for example, it was because she had seen the pain and terror in which New York's poor died of terminal cancer. “A fire was then lighted in my heart," she said, "where it still burns. . . I set my whole being to endeavor to bring consolation to the cancerous poor.”
That consolation is not brought by life-ending drugs, the Hawthorne Dominicans, like other plaintiffs insist, but by the "best palliative care, "loving palliative care ... protecting human dignity, freedom and human flourishing at the end of life and strive to meet the physical, emotional, spiritual and recreational needs of patients suffering from incurable cancer."
In a July 20 statement, Mark Rienzi, president of Becket and the lead attorney for the healthcare ministries, summarized what is offensive about the new law, saying, “New York is forcing sick and dying people to consider suicide at their lowest moment, regardless of whether they ask for it or not.”
From the state: No comment
To this date there has been no official response to the lawsuit from the State of New York. As reported by The Tablet:
Nicolette Simmonds, a spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, said the administration could not comment on the pending litigation but defended the law.
"While we cannot comment on any pending litigation, under this historic legislation participation is entirely voluntary, and religious facilities have the right to opt out if they choose to do so," she said in an emailed statement. "What this law does is allow terminally ill New Yorkers with less than six months to live to make a voluntary, informed decision. It reflects years of thoughtful planning and consideration. The Department of Health is working on regulations that will implement the law thoughtfully and responsibly."
Because the wording of the law appears to contradict the language about voluntary participation and the right to opt out, and because the Department of Health is still in the process of working on regulations, plaintiffs believe the lawsuit is the best way to proceed.
“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,” Rockville Center's Bishop Barres said in a statement to the Long Island Herald. “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.”
NOTE: This lawsuit differs from one brought by the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne against the State of New York earlier this year, on a different issue of religious liberty.
