‘EXTRAORDINARILY TROUBLED’

Bishops of New York respond after Hochul says she will sign physician-assisted suicide bill

With Gov. Kathy Hochul's announcement that she will sign the state's assisted-suicide bill into law, New York will become the 13th state - as well as the District of Columbia - to legalize assisted suicide. (OSV News file photo) (Courtesy photo of Mike Crupi, Catholic Courier)

The Bishops of New York have called on all Catholics to reject physician-assisted suicide and pray that the state rejects this “Culture of Death” after Gov. Kathy Hochul announced she will sign the physician-assisted suicide bill that was passed by the legislature earlier this year.

“We are extraordinarily troubled by Governor Hochul’s announcement that she will sign the egregious bill passed by the legislature earlier this year sanctioning physician-assisted suicide in New York State,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan and the Bishops of New York said in a joint statement. “This new law signals our government’s abandonment of its most vulnerable citizens, telling people who are sick or disabled that suicide in their case is not only acceptable, but is encouraged by our elected leaders.

“Tragically, this new law will seriously undermine all of the anti-suicide and mental health care investments Governor Hochul has made through her tenure. How can any society have credibility to tell young people or people with depression that suicide is never the answer, while at the same time telling elderly and sick people that it is a compassionate choice to be celebrated?”

Hochul had signed a flurry of bills into law as the year was coming to an end, but the assisted-suicide bill had been just one of two that had not made it to her desk. She had not given any indication if she would sign the bill, and pro-life advocates had hoped she would veto the bill through a measure known as a “pocket veto.” Those hopes were dashed when she wrote a commentary on Dec. 17 for the Times Union, which can also be read at www.governor.ny.gov/news, explaining why she will sign the bill, comparing this to how the state has championed “the rights of individuals, from civil rights to labor rights, LGBTQ rights, women’s rights, and reproductive rights.” She also spoke of the pain of watching her mother’s fight against ALS.

Hochul, who is Catholic, also addressed how she can sign this bill despite the fact that many people of faith believe this “violates the sanctity of life.”

“I reflected on this during a Catholic funeral Mass for a family friend where the priest spoke of the welcome home to eternal life,” Hochul wrote. “I was taught that God is merciful and compassionate, and so must we be. This includes permitting a merciful option to those facing the unimaginable and searching for comfort in their final months in this life.

“So after careful deliberation, I decided to support legalizing medical aid in dying in very specific circumstances and with significant protections included in the law to ensure it is not misused or broadly applied.”

Hochul said these added “guardrails” would include concerns for the elderly and disabled populations, confirmation from a medical doctor that the individual truly had less than six months to live, and a mandatory five-day waiting period to provide the patient the chance to change their mind. The actual signing of the bill is expected to take place next month when the Legislature returns.

When signed into law, New York will become the 13th state, along with the District of Columbia, to legalize assisted suicide. On Dec. 12, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker signed SB 1950 into law, allowing terminally ill adults who are Illinois residents to end their lives through self-administered lethal drugs prescribed by a physician. 

As OSV News stated in their story about the Illinois bill, “Catholic teaching states that ‘intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder’ (Catechism, 2324). The teaching of the Catholic Church is quite specific, with the Second Vatican Council condemning ‘euthanasia or willful self-destruction’ among the moral ‘infamies’ that ‘poison human society’ and are a ‘supreme dishonor to the Creator.’”

And the American Medical Association has long stated that “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 for the guardrails that Hochul spoke of, the New York Catholic Conference has long pointed to the fact that once physician-assisted suicide is legal, advocates of the practice will stop at nothing for its continued expansion, calling it a slippery slope. In fact the conference released a statement that was published in last week’s paper with End of Life Choices Executive Director Mandi Zucker saying “We will also continue to advocate for changes to the law once enacted that will make the option of medical aid in dying more accessible to everyone.”

And that is something, the Bishops said, every New Yorker should continue to reject.

“While physician-assisted suicide will soon be legal here in New York, we must clearly reiterate that it is in direct conflict with Catholic teaching on the sacredness and dignity of all human life from conception until natural death and is a grave moral evil on par with other direct attacks on human life. We call on Catholics and all New Yorkers to reject physician-assisted suicide for themselves, their loved ones, and those in their care. And we pray that our state turn away from its promotion of a Culture of Death and invest instead in life-affirming, compassionate hospice and palliative care, which is seriously underutilized.”