ALBANY, N.Y. (OSV News) — Catholic opposition to state laws permitting assisted suicide for the terminally ill is expanding in federal courts.
On Oct. 29, New York Archbishop Ronald A. Hicks, the Archdiocese of New York and ArchCare Catholic healthcare ministry joined four orders of nuns and other ministries in a lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York in Albany, challenging the state’s Medical Aid in Dying Act, which took effect Aug. 5.
A temporary restraining order currently protects the nuns and ministries from the law; Archbishop Hicks is seeking the same for ArchCare and other Catholic providers.
The case, Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. Letitia James, is being handled by Becket, a religious liberty law firm based in Washington. James is New York state’s attorney general.
“We refuse to allow New York to force us to harm the very ones we’ve been called to care for,” Archbishop Hicks said in a statement released by Becket.
A similar order is in effect in Illinois. Most Catholic health workers in that state are now covered by a temporary restraining order on Illinois’ physician-assisted suicide law, which took effect Sept. 12.
The Medical Aid in Dying, or MAID, law applies to terminally ill New Yorkers with less than six months to live. Guidance supplied by state health officials observed, “The terminally ill person can withdraw their request for aid-in-dying medication, not take the medication once they have it, or otherwise change their mind at any time.”
MAID violates teaching to see patients as Jesus himself, says lawsuit
“Inspired by their belief that life is a sacred and precious gift from God,” the amended lawsuit states, “the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, the Little Sisters of the Poor, and the various religious orders and other ministries whose hospitals eventually became … Catholic Care and ArchCare have faithfully served the people of New York for over one hundred years.
“They have lived out the teaching to see their patients as Jesus Himself, ‘to cure if possible and always to care.'”
Their Catholic faith, the lawsuit adds, “leads them to accept death as the natural end to a life well-lived.”
The law means that those who care for the terminally ill are required “to proactively inform and counsel their patients about their ‘option’ to kill themselves,” which the lawsuit argues “is far broader than anything required by states such as California, Oregon, and Washington.”
Assisted suicide ‘gravely evil choice’ incompatible with healthcare mission
St. John Paul II’s encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” (The Gospel of Life”) reiterates Church teaching that “suicide is always as morally objectionable as murder. The Church’s tradition has always rejected it as a gravely evil choice.”
“Assisted suicide is completely incompatible with the compassionate care that the Sisters and ArchCare offer,” Adèle Keim, senior counsel at Becket and attorney for the healthcare ministries, said in a statement.
She added, “We are urging the court to protect these Catholic ministries as they continue their life-saving work, rather than forcing them to help end lives like New York wants.”
