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A bill that could usher in a “dangerous new era” in New York State is one step closer to becoming the law.

The bill known by its proponents as the “Medical Aid in Dying Act,” which Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the Bishops of New York State have called a “state-sanctioned suicide bill,” passed the state Assembly on April 29 by a vote of 81-67 after a lengthy debate.

“The Bishops of New York State are grateful to the entire Republican minority in the Assembly, as well as about 20 Democrats who took a principled vote against state-sanctioned suicide,” said Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference (NYSCC), after the vote. “The closeness of the vote indicates that many legislators are looking closely at the inevitable unintended consequences, including the possibility of coercion and pressure for people to end their lives. In a particular way, Assembly Democrats of color who spoke out against the bill during the vote understood the threat in their communities, which historically are medically underserved.”

This is the first time the bill has made it to the floor of either chamber since its inception in 2016.

“We call on Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins to reject this legislation and not force her members to take such a contentious vote that does not have the full support of her conference,” Poust added. “We further call on the Governor to veto the bill should it come to her desk. The points highlighted in the Assembly debate clearly show that state-sanctioned suicide is a disaster-in-waiting for New York.”

New York would become the 11th state - California, Colorado, Hawaii, Montana, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, plus the District of Columbia - to have a state-sanctioned suicide bill, if it passes the Senate and is signed into law by Governor Kathy Hochul. So what happens now?

Poust said in an email to the Evangelist that “the ball is in the Senate’s court. The bill currently sits in the Health Committee in that house. (Stewart-Cousins) has not committed to moving the bill. There is a chance it just dies in committee or a chance that they move it through and bring it to the floor. All power resides in the leader to make that decision, assuming the votes are there for passage. It is close. (Stewart-Cousins) has said there won’t be any discussion of that bill until after the budget is done.

 

“(The New York State Catholic Conference) will be working to stop the bill in the Senate. If we are unsuccessful there, we will make a push for a veto by Governor Hochul.”

The Catholic Church has been steadfast in its opposition to assisted suicide for decades. In his 1995 encyclical “Evangelium Vitae” (“The Gospel of Life”), St. John Paul II warned of euthanasia and assisted suicide, stating, “Here we are faced with one of the more alarming symptoms of the ‘culture of death.’ ”

In 2020, the Vatican reaffirmed and clarified church teachings on end-of-life care in a 25-page letter titled “ ‘Samaritanus Bonus,’ on the Care of Persons in the Critical and Terminal Phases of Life.” The letter stated “those who approve laws of euthanasia and assisted suicide, therefore, become accomplices of a grave sin that others will execute. They are also guilty of scandal because by such laws they contribute to the distortion of conscience, even among the faithful.”

In 2022, the late Pope Francis — who decried euthanasia as “always wrong” — said when the Italian Parliament resumed discussions about assisted suicide that “we must accompany people toward death, but not provoke death or facilitate assisted suicide.” He added that this applies to everyone, “not just Christians or believers.”

It is not only the Church and the NYSCC that opposes this bill on religious and moral grounds; the American Medical Association strongly opposes it saying “physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.” 

As Robert Bellafiore, spokesman for the NYSCC, said before the bill passed in the Assembly this “is a classic Pandora’s Box.”

“Once enacted, it cannot be controlled. And the experience in suicide-by-doctor jurisdictions shows this will go in directions New York’s well-meaning lawmakers may not envision but the bill’s lobbyists very much desire,” Bellafiore said. “You can look it up – in the proposed legislation and in the suicide lobby’s own words and actions.

“Doctors would be forced to lie on death certificates. That’s normally a felony. And it makes the program incredibly difficult to evaluate honestly or regulate for compliance with the law. It creates a cottage industry of little Jack Kervorkians handing out meds whose only purpose is to kill the patient.”

For example in Canada, a bill that was originally meant for terminally-ill patients, has expanded, according to the NYSCC, to include people with “chronic” but not terminal illnesses, And in 2027, the Canada law is set to expand to include people suffering from dementia, depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses. In 2022 alone, 2,264 Canadians used “aid in dying” to end their lives because of loneliness, and another 323 did so when they were unable to access palliative care, while 196 did it after they could not obtain disability support.

The CDC says suicide was the second-leading cause of death among adolescents (ages 12-17) across the U.S. in 2020, and 22 percent of high school students seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021. Isn’t it time we embrace a culture of life instead of one of death?

So what can Catholics in the Diocese of Albany do? We must take up Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger’s call to “rise up against it,” as he wrote in his May 1 column in The Evangelist. The NYSCC recommends Catholics contact their state senator via its website at nyscatholic.org/action-center, where the system will match them with their senator and provide a pre-written, editable email message. 

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