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In what was most definitely “a dark day for New York,” the state Senate passed the state-sanctioned suicide bill late Monday, June 9.

“This is a dark day for New York State. For the first time in its history, New York is on the verge of authorizing doctors to help their patients commit suicide,” said Dennis Poust, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, after the Senate passed the bill 35-27. “Make no mistake — this is only the beginning, and the only person standing between New York and the assisted suicide nightmare unfolding in Canada is Governor (Kathy) Hochul.

“The governor has said she will review the legislation when it gets to her desk. We expect that when she does so, she will conclude what 27 of her fellow Democrats in the legislature have — that this bill would be catastrophic for medically underserved communities, including communities of color, as well as for people with disabilities and other vulnerable populations who will be at the mercy of a health care industry that will soon be reeling from federal Medicaid cuts.”

Poust added that it will likely be weeks or even months before the bill is delivered to Hochul’s desk. Even when it is on her desk, she has 10 days to sign it.

“Governor Hochul has acted boldly to address the suicide crisis in our state and has made access to mental health care a hallmark of her tenure as governor, with historic investments the last two years. This bill undermines those priorities,” Poust said. “The legislation passed in the Senate and Assembly contains no requirement for a psychological screening for depression or other mental illness, and not even so much as a brief waiting period for people who might be in despair following a terminal diagnosis.

“We fully expect the governor will also hear the concerns of the disabilities community, which has expressed grave concern that they will be coerced toward assisted suicide due to loss of independence or bodily function.”

The bill known by its proponents as the “Medical Aid in Dying Act,” which Cardinal Timothy M. 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 bill would allow a terminally ill adult with a prognosis of six months or less to live to request from a physician a medication that would hasten his or her death, which the state’s Catholic bishops oppose.

“We reject the false notion that suicide is ever a solution. Instead, we call on New York State to expand palliative and hospice care, mental health services, and family caregiver support,” Poust said. “We look forward to continuing to work with the governor on these priorities following her veto of this disastrous bill.”

New York would join California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Montana, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington, plus the District of Columbia as allowing state-sanctioned suicide if the bill is signed into law by Hochul. Delaware was the most recent state to legalize physician-assisted suicide when Gov. Matt Meyer on May 20 signed House Bill 140, the physician-assisted suicide law that will allow Delaware adult residents who are deemed terminally ill to request and self-administer medication to end their lives.

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.”

The Bishops of New York State have been equally vigilant in their opposition to this bill. In a May 29 opinion piece for The Wall Street Journal, Cardinal Dolan urged Empire State lawmakers to reject legislation that would legalize physician-assisted suicide and praised state officials for other state efforts to prevent suicide and argued that the physician-assisted suicide bill is contradictory to those efforts.

In his May 1 column for The Evangelist, Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger urged all Catho­lics to rise up against the bill in a column titled “Compassion endures. It does not kill.” On April 24, Cardinal Dolan and the Bishops of New York State said the passing of the bill would start a “dangerous new era” and added “we pray that the legislature reconsiders this disastrous public policy, and we call on Governor Hochul to exercise her veto authority should the bill come to her desk.”

It is not only the Church and the NYSCC that opposes this bill on religious and moral grounds; the American Medical Association (AMA) 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.” And on June 9, the AMA House of Delegates (HOD) overwhelmingly rejected an attempt to change AMA policy and re-affirmed its longstanding policy in opposition to assisted suicide. It also approved a Board of Trustees report which rejected attempts to change the longstanding and clear terminology “physician assisted suicide” in AMA policy.

OSV News contributed to this report.

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