Catholic Nuns Sue New York Over ‘Suicide Counseling Mandate’

Catholic Nuns Sue New York Over ‘Suicide Counseling Mandate’

Catholic religious sisters and healthcare ministries are suing New York over an upcoming law that would require them to inform patients about so-called “Medical Aid in Dying,” also known as assisted suicide.

Beginning on August 5, New York “authorizes medical providers to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients for the purpose of ending their own life.”

But the Empire State goes even further than leading assisted suicide states such as Oregon – it requires “healthcare providers to inform patients of and counsel them about the option to kill themselves.”

The Becket Fund, which is representing the Little Sisters of the Poor and other Catholic religious sisters in federal court, has dubbed this a “suicide counseling mandate.”

While the law does not mandate that Catholic hospitals provide the lethal drugs themselves, they are required now to facilitate the process. So a practicing Catholic doctor would be forced under this law to find a pro-assisted suicide medical professional to assist his patient in ending their life.

The lawsuit details other problems with the law:

Individual physicians could still be required to inform, counsel, and qualify patients for assisted suicide; private healthcare facilities could still be prevented from prohibiting physicians from informing, counseling, and qualifying on-premises, or even prescribing off-premises; and assisted living homes could still be required to allow their patients to kill themselves in their facilities.

Plaintiffs also include the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne. The latter are separately fighting New York over a mandate that it allow men to be housed in women’s hospice rooms and that it allow patients to commit adultery, as Legal Insurrection previously reported.

The religious sisters emphasized that they simply wish to live out their vows to care for the neediest among them.

“We have served God by welcoming the elderly poor and dying into our homes for nearly 200 years,” Mother Alice Marie Monica of the Little Sisters of the Poor stated in a news release. “Our calling is to protect and care for needy seniors, not steer them toward suicide. We will remain true to that mission, whatever the cost.”

The prioress general of the Carmelite Sisters added that their goal is to “bring His compassion to those entrusted to our care, ensuring that no resident ever has to die alone.”

[Featured image via Becket Fund]

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