New York Governor To Sign Assisted Suicide Bill; Catholics React

Kathy Hochul, the Governor, describes herself as a "practising Catholic". It ain't Catholicism that she's practising, that's for sure!

From Aleteia

By Christine Rousselle

The New York legislature had passed a bill legalizing assisted suicide in the state back in June, but Gov. Kathy Hochul had not yet signed it into law.

New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a self-described practicing Catholic, will sign into law a bill allowing physician-assisted suicide in the state, she announced on Wednesday, December 17.

“New York has long been a beacon of freedom, and now it is time we extend that freedom to terminally ill New Yorkers who want the right to die comfortably and on their own terms," said Hochul in a statement.

As part of her agreement to sign the bill into law, the legislature agreed to add additional "guardrails" before a person can receive lethal drugs from their doctor.

 “My mother died of ALS, and I am all too familiar with the pain of seeing someone you love suffer and being powerless to stop it. Although this was an incredibly difficult decision, I ultimately determined that with the additional guardrails agreed upon with the legislature, this bill would allow New Yorkers to suffer less – to shorten not their lives, but their deaths," she said.

These conditions include a five-day waiting period before a prescription can be filled; a requirement to record oral requests; mental health evaluations; and permitting religiously-affiliated home hospice providers to refuse to provide physician-assisted suicide, among others.

The announcement that Hochul would sign the bill came six months after the legislature sent it to her desk for her signature. Hochul had until the end of the year to decide whether to veto or sign the legislation into law.

Bishops, moral theologian, raise concerns

A moral theologian told Aleteia that the decision to legalize assisted suicide in New York means that the state "has no coherent understanding of health care."

"As American Medical Association recently confirmed through a massive majority vote of delegates, there is no way for doctors to participate in the violence of physician-assisted killing and still have a coherent understanding of their profession. Healing can never involve killing," Charlie Camosy, an associate professor of moral theology at The Catholic University of America told Aleteia on Wednesday.

He continued, noting that until now, the state had "resisted the massive funding of groups like Compassion and Choices — formerly the Hemlock Society — but they now have chosen to reward the powerful and autonomous and reject the disabled, sick, and vulnerable."

The New York State Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the bishops of New York, issued a joint statement on Wednesday condemning the news that the bill was to become law.

“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," said the bishops.

"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."

Additionally, the law will serve to "seriously undermine all of the anti-suicide and mental health care investments Governor Hochul has made through her tenure," said the bishops.

"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?"

Physician-assisted suicide, despite its soon-to-be-legal status in the state, 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," said the statement.

"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.”

The New York legislature will vote in January to approve the newly written bill, and it will go into effect six months later.

Pictured: Her Excellency Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York and Apostate Catholic