Court protects Catholic nuns from participating in assisted suicide in New York – for now

A federal judge has temporarily stopped New York from forcing several Catholic orders and health care ministries to take part in assisted suicide.

U.S. District Judge Anne M. Nardacci approved the temporary restraining order July 30. New York officials agreed not to enforce the disputed parts of the state’s assisted-suicide laws against the Catholic plaintiffs while the case continues.

The protection applies to the plaintiffs, their employees and their medical providers. It does not block New York from enforcing the laws against other people or organizations.

New York may also continue writing rules for its Medical Aid in Dying Act. The order will remain in place while the court considers the groups’ request for a longer injunction and the state’s request to dismiss the case.

The state granted the ministries limited protection only after they sued and sought emergency relief from the court.

“Forcing Catholic nuns to participate in suicide – and robbing New Yorkers of the choice to receive faithful, life-affirming care – is both unlawful and unjust,” Becket President Mark Rienzi said in a statement.

Becket, a religious liberty law firm, represents the Catholic groups.

The plaintiffs include the Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm, the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne, the Missionary Sisters of St. Benedict and the Little Sisters of the Poor, as Heartlander News previously reported. The Diocese of Rockville Centre and Catholic Health also joined the case.

The groups care for the sick, elderly and dying. Their ministries teach that every human life comes from God and deserves care until natural death.

They sued because the state’s laws could require them to discuss assisted suicide, assess whether patients qualify, record requests for lethal drugs or help patients find willing providers.

Those acts would make the ministries cooperate in suicide in violation of Catholic teaching, the lawsuit says.

New York’s assisted-suicide law takes effect Aug. 5. It allows a mentally competent adult with an illness expected to cause death within six months to receive lethal drugs from a doctor. The patient must take the drugs without assistance.

The law says providers do not have to participate. However, it requires a facility that prohibits assisted suicide to transfer a requesting patient to a willing facility under certain conditions.

The Catholic plaintiffs say the new law works with the state’s Palliative Care Information Act to force providers to give terminally ill patients information and counseling about assisted suicide.

Refusing to follow the requirements could expose providers to fines, professional discipline or other penalties, according to the lawsuit.

The New York State Catholic Conference said the state’s proposed rules “fail to resolve flaws in the conscience protection provisions in the MAID law.”

The temporary order does not decide whether the laws violate the First Amendment. New York Attorney General Letitia James has until Aug. 20 to respond to the emergency request.

The case is Carmelite Sisters for the Aged and Infirm v. James.