Mother Mary Heery, prioress general of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, has spent her life caring for elderly people at the edge of death. Her sisters ease pain, protect dignity, and make sure no one dies alone.
New York now wants them to treat assisted suicide as a legitimate medical option, even though their faith teaches that deliberately ending a life is wrong.
For our VIPs: Nuns Who Minister to the Dying Suing New York to Be Exempted From Assisted Dying Statute
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Medical Aid in Dying Act on February 6. It takes effect August 5 and allows qualifying New York adults with less than six months to live to obtain medication intended to end their lives. Hochul says the law protects medical professionals and religious facilities from being forced to provide assisted suicide.
From the Office of the Governor:
“Our state will always stand firm in safeguarding New Yorkers’ freedoms and right to bodily autonomy, which includes the right for the terminally ill to peacefully and comfortably end their lives with dignity and compassion,” Governor Hochul said. “This journey was deeply personal for me. Witnessing my mother’s suffering from ALS was an excruciating experience, knowing there was nothing I could do to alleviate the pain of someone I loved. It took years of intimate discussions with our bill sponsors, health experts, advocates, and most importantly, families who have similar firsthand experiences. New Yorkers deserve the choice to endure less suffering, not by shortening their lives, but by shortening their deaths — I firmly believe we made the right decision.”
The bill, as passed by the Legislature originally included a number of protections in order to ensure that no patient was coerced into choosing medical aid in dying and that no health care professional or religiously affiliated health facility would be forced to offer medical aid in dying. The Governor worked with the Legislature to include additional guardrails that will make sure people won’t be taken advantage of, while still ensuring terminally ill New Yorkers have the choice to die comfortably and on their own terms, including:
- A mandatory waiting period of 5 days between when a prescription is written and filled.
- An oral request by the patient for medical aid in dying must be recorded by video or audio.
- A mandatory mental health evaluation of the patient seeking medical aid in dying by a psychologist or psychiatrist.
- A prohibition against anyone who may benefit financially from the death of a patient from being eligible to serve as a witness to the oral request or an interpreter for the patient.
- Limiting the availability of medical aid in dying to New York residents.
- Requiring that the initial evaluation of a patient by a physician be in person.
- Allowing religiously-oriented home hospice providers to opt out of offering medical aid in dying.
- Ensuring that a violation of the law is defined as professional misconduct under the Education Law.
- Extending the effective date of the bill to six months after signing to allow the Department of Health to put into place regulations required to implement the law while also ensuring that health care facilities can properly prepare and train staff for compliance.
A new federal lawsuit says the protection is largely cosmetic. The Carmelite Sisters, Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict, Little Sisters of the Poor, Catholic Health, and the Diocese of Rockville Centre argue that the law works with New York’s Palliative Care Information Act to compel participation before any prescription is written.
Their complaint says Catholic doctors and institutions could be required to tell terminally ill patients about assisted suicide, counsel them about obtaining it, refer them to willing providers, create policies facilitating access, and allow employees to help patients qualify. Refusal could bring civil penalties, professional discipline, loss of licenses, and possible criminal exposure.
Mother Marie Edward, O.P., Superior General of the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, said, “For over 125 years, we have ministered to the poor who are dying of cancer as if they were Christ Himself. Our calling is to offer comfort, prayer, and loving medical care to those in their final days—not death.”
Edward added, “We pray the court will protect our freedom to remain faithful to that ministry God has entrusted to us.”
In April, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne sued New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, alleging the state’s “Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender, and people living with HIV long-term care facility residents’ bill of rights” could force them to choose between their faith and their mission or face fines, loss of licensing and even jail time.
Mother Mary Rose Heery, O. Carm., prioress general of the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, said in a statement, “At our homes, we bring Christ’s unbounded love to elderly New Yorkers of every background and walk of life.”
Heery added, “We strive to bring His compassion to those entrusted to our care, ensuring that no resident ever has to die alone. This law strikes at the heart of that vocation.”
New York’s exemption is narrow; religious home hospice providers may opt out of offering assisted suicide, but the plaintiffs operate nursing homes, assisted living residences, hospitals, and other facilities. Even an exempt institution may still face duties involving information, counseling, records, referrals, and transfers.
The lawsuit doesn’t ask a federal judge to resolve every moral dispute surrounding assisted suicide; it asks the court to stop New York from drafting unwilling religious ministries into the process. A legal choice for one patient can’t become a government command that another person violate his faith.
Catholics and Orthodox Jews have become convenient targets for a political culture that praises religious diversity until traditional belief interferes with a progressive policy. If the plaintiffs were Muslim women in hijabs, Albany’s ruling class would recognize a religious-liberty problem immediately.
A nun’s habit apparently produces less sympathy.
The insult becomes clearer when you look at the work these women perform. Rosary Hill Home cares for people with incurable cancer who can’t afford their final care. The Little Sisters of the Poor serve elderly residents with limited means. Carmelite facilities provide skilled nursing and palliative care to people in their final days.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, State Health Commissioner James McDonald, and Michael Iannuzzi, interim chair of the State Board for Professional Medical Conduct, are named because their offices can enforce the health laws and discipline providers.
The sisters are asking for an injunction before the law takes effect.
New York may defend assisted suicide as compassion. Catholic nuns define compassion as staying beside the suffering, treating pain, and refusing to abandon a life before its natural end.
The First Amendment is supposed to protect both the right to believe and the right to live by that belief.
A religious habit isn’t a waiver of citizenship.
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